


When Two Worlds Collide

by phoenixreal



Category: Bleach, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Adoption, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BAMF Ichigo, Bisexual Tony Stark, Bottom Tony Stark, Explicit Sexual Content, Flashbacks, Gender Identity, Healing, Horny Hollow Ichigo, Howard Stark's Bad Parenting, Hurt/Comfort, Kidnapping, Kitsune, Lemon, Lies, M/M, Natasha Romanov & Tony Stark Friendship, Parallel Universes, Past Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Past Child Abuse, Past Domestic Violence, Past Drug Use, Past Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Past Rape/Non-con, Possessive Ichigo, Post-Avengers (2012), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protective Ichigo, Recovery, Red String of Fate, Romance, Self-Esteem Issues, Self-Harm, Seme Ichigo, Sexual Identity, Tony Angst, Tony Stark Has Daddy Issues, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Top Ichigo, Torture, Uke Tony Stark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-08
Updated: 2016-06-08
Packaged: 2018-02-24 13:36:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 55,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2583302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoenixreal/pseuds/phoenixreal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Avengers are surprised when a man falls from the sky and leaves a crater in Manhatten.  Ichigo is also surprised to wake up in a new world after falling through a garganta in Heuco Mundo during a fight with a strange arrancar.  When two worlds come together, sparks are sure to fly.  Ichigo finds out that no matter where he goes, there are those that are vulnerable and need protection.  Tony finds out that not everyone is out for themselves in the world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Fall of a Shinigami

**Author's Note:**

> This is a canon crossover divergent fanfiction. Characters from the Marvel Universe and the Bleach universe are placed together. This story is set in the Avengers world for the most part. This story occurs a few months after the Avengers movie in the Cinematic Marvel Universe. Characters in the Marvel universe may be influenced by comic book origins and personality quirks not shown in the Cinematic Universe (for example, Tony Stark’s Secret Origin is used, and the use of Tiberius Stone, Steve is NOT as cuddly as he is in the MCU. In fact, comic canon Steve Rogers is the epitome of straight laced, follow the rules no matter what type and is constantly at odds with Tony). In this storyline, Tony chose NOT to have the arc reactor removed yet. He also separated from Pepper after the events in IM3. In the Bleach universe, the story takes place after the Fullbringer Arc but before the Thousand Year Blood War Arc has begun.
> 
>  A note on the two main characters and their personalities:
> 
> Ichigo is definitely different than the anime/manga at this point. This version of Ichigo reacted differently to the fact Soul Society didn’t trust him and to his father’s hiding of the truth. Instead of accepting and taking things easily, he reacts with mistrust and bitterness. This Ichigo is more mature in some ways, but less mature in others. He lacks some of the self-imposed limits, and he is far more volatile and emotional. I see this as Ichigo that would react more like an average teenager than he does in the manga and anime. He feels used and doesn’t trust anyone in his life any longer because everyone has lied to him in some way.  
> Tony as well is different. This Tony is less full of himself, and less egotistical. His “ego” is for show more than anything, and at heart he’s a scared boy that grew up with a distant father and fell into an abusive relationship at an early age. He often feels that the world is against him and he uses his status and money to put on a good show, so good in fact, most people that are the closest to him believe it.
> 
> Additional out of canon events may have occurred to any character altering some aspects of their personalities. Because this is a story that involved a romance between two male characters that are different in their respective canons, sexuality and gender identity may be altered from canon, as will personality characteristics.
> 
> Warnings
> 
> This is a hardcore yaoi fanfiction. This is rated MA. This contains explicit sexual content. This story includes abduction, physical/mental/sexual torture, and non-consensual sexual situations. This story is not intended to be read by individuals under the age of 18.  
> Disclaimer  
> I do not claim ownership of any part of the Bleach universe or of the Bleach characters. Tite Kubo owns this amazing world; I am simply playing within it.  
> I also do not own any part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe or Marvel properties.  
> Original elements do belong to me. 
> 
>  
> 
> There is no copyright infringement intended and I in no way make money from writing or posting this work of fanfiction.
> 
>  
> 
> Helps to be familiar with Bleach, but it isn't necessary. Likewise, it would help to be familiar with Avengers, but not necessary to understand the story.
> 
> Emmagem803 is beta'ing this one, updates will be uploaded soon.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A stranger falls from the sky and SHIELD picks him up. For some reason, there is a connection between Tony Stark and this Ichigo Kurosaki that neither understand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Revised Version: 5-22-15
> 
> Time has been moved forward to Pre Age of Ultron during the time of the Hydra raids. Story will go through Age of Ultron, however, AoU will not be detailed, only referenced.
> 
> Beta'd: Emmagem803

* * *

 

Falling was always an unusual sensation.  The world was speeding past, wind whipping the body this way and that, and then, the sudden, hard stop at the end.  Of course, in a normal person, that stop would shatter every bone and kill them instantly.  What else would happen?  It just didn’t make sense for someone to drop from around thirty thousand feet or so, hit concrete and leave a crater, then stand up.  Of course not.  Most people would have thought that was true in New York before there was an alien invasion by a Norse god repelled by another Norse god, a super soldier, a man in a flying suit of armor, two assassins, and a rage beast.

It wasn’t any wonder when a falling man came crashing down in the middle of New York and left a hole at least fifteen feet wide and five feet deep, no one was all that surprised.  People gathered around curious and looked down, not sure what it was, but it was covered with rubble and smoking from the impact.  The figure, however, wasn’t getting up.  An ambulance showed up a few moments later, but considering the strangeness of the situation, they didn’t want to go down to see what it was.  A few more minutes later, a helicopter came down and hovered over the gaping opening in the street and a couple men rappelled down.  Soon after, a backboard came down, and those watching saw what looked like a person being put onto the backboard and lifted up, followed by then two men.  The helicopter went up where it rendezvoused with the SHIELD helicarrier above them. 

Street maintenance came out and began fixing the crater, and the people of New York went about their lives once more.  There was a small blurb on the evening news, and that was all that was heard about the man that fell from the sky.  At least, by the public at large.

On the helicarrier, it was another story all together.  Everyone was bustling and Fury had already put a call in to the Avengers to get to helicarrier immediately.  They had no idea what they had, but they  had something that had managed to survive a fall from around thirty thousand feet and looked perfectly fine other than being unconscious and having shredded clothing.  Fury now stood outside the med bay as the man, boy really, by the look, was put through multiple scans.  Already, Fury was working out the possibilities.  The obvious was that he was another attempt at the super soldier project.  There were alien possibilities as well, though he did not appear to be alien in origin.  Of course, the biggest question was what the individual’s intent would be.  Concepts of good and evil were popularized in the media, but Fury knew better.

He watched as the doctors and nurses worked around the body.  He hadn’t moved the slightest bit since they pulled him out of the crater.  He already knew that he was going to have an argument on the team.  Stark would want to investigate before making a conclusion.  Rogers would want to take a better safe than sorry approach.  He would have to decide before they arrived or else the bickering between those two would drive him out of his mind.  He tapped thoughtfully against his lip as he watched.  The doctor came out a second later.

“Director, sir, the scans reveal him as human.  Mostly human, I should say.  I can’t pin down an actual DNA sequence.  He has blood, but the elements are off, I can’t explain it.  It may be my instruments aren’t sensitive enough for this,” the dark haired man said sadly. 

“You’re betting that Stark would have better luck,” Fury said, looking at him.

“Sir, I hate to tell you what to do, but Mr. Stark tends to solve problems like this easily.  He was the closest to understanding Asgardian magic, and no one else can replicate the things that he does, like the arc reactor for example,” the meek doctor said nervously.

Fury nodded.  “Thank you,” he said, dismissing him.  Always back to Tony Stark.  It seemed like he would have to lean toward siding with Tony to get what he needed.  He’d need Tony to use his unique talents to understand what this being actually was and if he started off on the wrong foot when they arrived, he’d decide to disagree with everything Fury said.  Tony had been unusually accommodating with everything since they started hunting up Hydra in efforts to locate the Staff Loki had brought to Earth.

“Director?” came another voice behind him. Fury turned to see one of the female scientists that had been assigned to look over the weapon the boy had been found with. “We’ve secured the weapon we found with him in the next bay.  We are having no luck with analysis.”

Fury nodded. Again, the only one who would be able to figure out how to even test the weapon would be Stark.  Sometimes he hated his job, having to figure out how to not only assess the threat this unknown person posed, but figure out how to manipulate Stark into doing what he wanted without the brilliant man realizing that he was being manipulated.  He sighed and watched.  A few minutes later Fury felt a presence and turned to see Bruce, Tony and Steve had all arrived.  Clint and Natasha were doing recon on a suspected Hydra base, and Thor was at Avengers Tower ready to come at a moment’s notice should Fury need him.

“So, we’ve got a mystery,” Fury said as they strapped the figure’s legs and arms down to the bed. “He landed in the middle of Manhattan.  Left a fifteen foot crater, good five or six feet deep in the asphalt.  As you can see, his clothes were shredded, but he seems to be fine other than being unconscious, not a wound on his body now, though when he was found, he was bruised and cut.  His body seems to have healed completely in the last five hours since he was picked up.”

Steve looked through the window of the medbay as the doctors and nurses walked around taking readings.  “What’s he wearing?” he said, glancing at the remains of the black, wide legged pants that were tied on with some sort of white sash.  He wore a black cloak style jacket that had bands over his chest with black gloves. 

“Some sort of ancient Japanese style dress, from what the boys in research can tell, authentic, and not made of any material we’ve ever seen.  However, there is no record of something that looks exactly like what he’s wearing.  Whatever it is, it seems to be mending itself,” Fury said with a nod at the places that a moment ago had been ripped.  “And other than that, he has a modern haircut,” he said as the nurse picked up the back of the bed to reveal that he had a head full of spiked, short hair that was an obnoxiously loud orange color.  There was something like a high collar or something on his neck.

“And he had a sword,” Fury said, taking them to where the next room was secured with a guard outside.  Inside, on the table was a long, thin sword that had a very unusual shape and a pitch black blade.  “The sword is very real, but there are no forging marks.  So we don’t get what exactly made that sword.  We honesty can’t do any measurements on it to even begin to tell what the thing is made of.”

They stepped back in front of the medbay where the boy was still laying quietly unconscious.  Bruce looked at Fury who nodded at him.  “Go ahead, see what you can make of him,” Fury said.  Bruce went and headed into the room to look him over. 

Tony stepped up beside Fury and looked into the room.  “So, any idea at all?” he asked.

Fury shook his head.  “We’ve got nothing.  He just appeared, from what we got from area radar, about thirty thousand feet up.  He hit terminal velocity.  His teeth should be powdered with that impact.”

Steve nodded.  “I probably could survive that kind of fall,” he said, looking at him.

Fury nodded.  “That’s what worries me.  What if we’re dealing with another super soldier experiment?  We know Hydra has the scepter and we don’t really know what abilities it might infuse into someone.  Hydra is only one of many who would try.  And there are other possibilities.  He’s not Asgardian, we already compared his readings to both Thor’s and Loki’s, so there isn’t a match there.  He isn’t Kree, we’ve compared the readings to what we know of that race.  The truth is we can’t get a good idea with our instruments.”

“Well, we could move him to the tower when he wakes up if he doesn’t have need of medical care,” Tony said with a nod, already reading where Fury was headed.

Steve put a hand up and shook his head.  “No, Stark, we need to put him in a secure cell.”

Tony glared at him.  “There’s no reason to think there’s any reason to put him in a cell.  You’re the one that wants to find Bucky and reform him, why aren’t you all on trying to get this guy on our side?” Tony said, knowing that it would incite the old argument.

Steve bristled.  “Bucky is different.  I know him underneath what Hydra did to him.”

Tony snorted.  “Well, you’re willing to try and reform someone completely reprogrammed to kill you, but not take fifteen minutes to do an assessment on this kid?”

Steve started to argue and Fury put his hand up. “No, Steve, he’s got a point.  Better to keep him in an area where we’ve got eyes on him all the time and can access exactly what his potential for danger is right now without ruining any chance at gaining allegiance.”

Tony turned to Fury and scowled.  “Is that all you see in there?  An ally or an enemy?”

Fury looked at him and sighed.  He already knew that was coming, just like the argument between Stark and Rogers.  It seemed like no matter what over the last month, if one of those two said something, the other would argue it.  He was beginning to wonder if Rogers said the sky was blue if Tony was going to argue it was an off color of cerulean.  Knowing Stark, he probably would.  The good news was, they seemed fine in the field.  For some reason Tony refused to argue with Steve on missions, and became rather passive when he was in the suit, even bantering back and forth with him.

Inside the med bay, Bruce was turned away in the room when the boy’s eyes fluttered open and closed.  He frowned and rolled his head.  Tony stood up and started to knock on the window but the kid’s eyes shot open.  It looked like he realized that he was somewhere unfamiliar and he was restrained.  His eyes darted from one arm to the other but he otherwise didn’t move.  He couldn’t see outside the window, so he had no idea anyone else besides Bruce was there.  Fury put his hand on Tony to hold him back so they could see what he did.  Fury wasn’t worried.  The room was equipped with a suppression field that would take out three hulks.  From the kid’s regenerative capability, he had an idea he could take that kind of suppression.

The boy scowled, and yanked both arms up at the same time, efficiently snapping the bindings off his arm, and getting Bruce’s attention with the sound.

He was reaching for the bindings on his ankle when Bruce turned toward him, and Tony went around into the room, followed quickly by Steve.  Tony and Steve were both going into the room for different reasons.  Steve was wary and ready to react, though a part of him was curious to see if this was a possibly successful super soldier.  Tony wanted to find out who and what the kid was, his curiosity of finding something completely and totally new and interesting overriding his better judgment.

“Hey there, kid,” Tony said, sliding up beside him and grabbing his hands before he could snatch the leg restraints off of himself, surprising him.  Tony smiled as he turned to stare at him.  “Hey, you’re okay?”

The young man frowned and tipped his head to the side.  “English?” he said softly. 

Tony exchanged glances with Bruce.  “Um, yeah, we speak English, do you?”

He licked his lips and frowned.  “ _Hai_ , I do, I don’t often speak it, so I may not be fluent.”

Tony nodded, pulling his hands away from the ankle restraints.  “I’m guessing you speak Japanese, by the look,” Tony said, letting his hands go and picking at the leg of the boy’s pants.  “You got a name?”

“K-Kurosaki Ichigo,” he said, looking around the room.  “I…how…I was in…and there was a blast…and…”

Tony nodded, sitting down beside him on the bed, more to keep him talking than anything.  Bruce was working behind him, running some detailed brain scans now that he was awake, and Steve stood to the side.  Tony could tell that Steve was set to attack if need be. Fury was still outside, Tony guessed, watching beyond the glass.

“Kurosaki, that’s your family name, right?” Tony asked.  “Ichigo is your given name?”

Ichigo nodded.  “Yeah,” he said, looking around the room still. 

“Okay, well, I’m Tony Stark, that’s Dr. Bruce Banner, and Captain Steve Rogers.  You’re on a helicarrier owned by SHIELD, a military type thing that we work for,” Tony said, watching his eyes.  He was alert.  “We kind of found you in the middle of New York where you fell from about thirty thousand feet in the air.”

Ichigo frowned and nodded.  “Yeah, I remember falling.  I was fighting, and the _garganta,_ an opening between worlds, opened behind me, and someone, one of the _arrancar_ , the guys we were fighting, they pushed me through, and then I was falling.  I’ve never seen one open so high.  I couldn’t stop, usually I can use my _reiatsu_ to stop myself from falling, but it wasn’t working, and my _shihakuso_ was shredded, so I knew something was wrong with my _reiatsu_ …” he said, looking around still.

“What’s that?  _Reiatsu_?” Bruce said, looking at him over a tablet he was making notes in. 

“Um, spiritual pressure, I…wait, you can see me?” he said, suddenly realizing that they were all looking at him.  “Ah, damn I wish my _kido_ was better,” he muttered, not able to sense _reiatsu_ was such a detriment sometimes.

Tony was watching him closely.  His eyes were definitely Asian, almond shaped and deep brown, but his hair was such an odd color.  He’d met quite a few Japanese businessmen in his time, and spoke conversational Japanese, though he was nowhere near fluent in the language, well not quite yet. The Asian languages were complex, and while given a little time he’d know them…he wasn’t in the position to do that now.  Tony saw some things he recognized.  The calculating gaze of a fighter if Tony didn’t miss his guess, the alertness of someone who had been in battle many times, and the tightly wound nature of someone used to reacting to things were all present.

“So, you know how to use that sword you had with you?” Tony asked, pointing to the sword. 

Ichigo’s head whipped to the side.  “Zangetsu!” he said.  “Where is he? Give him back to me,” he said, eyes narrowing at Tony and then Bruce and Steve.

“Him?” Bruce asked, frowning at him as he unfrosted the glass into the next bay where the sword was held.  They had wanted to keep the sword in close proximity to test if he had any effect on the sword outside of touching it.

Ichigo grit his teeth and glared at them each again.  He could see that the sword was fine and still in bankai, like his clothes.  “He’s fine,” he said softly with a sigh.  “Good, whatever happened didn’t hurt him.  Kami, thank you,” he muttered.  “I was so afraid, Ojiisan,” he said, looking through the window at the strange, solid black sword.

“Ojiisan?” Tony said.  He thought that meant grandfather or something.

“Well, I have to make sure he’s still there!” Ichigo said, closing his eyes and sensing Zangetsu vividly.  It was actually much different, he could hear him and Shiro very faintly even without entering the inner world.  He frowned as Zangetsu related what had happened to him.  “He’s upset, of course, we’re not…we’re not in the right place,” he said, looking around.  “This…this isn’t my home, this isn’t…wait, seriously?” he said, eyes still closed and head tilted to the side.  He wasn’t completely slipping into his world, just brushing the spirit’s consciousness.  _How do I get home, Zangetsu?_ he asked him concerned.  _Ichigo, there may not be a way to get home_. 

“Rest, Zangetsu,” he said softly, closing his eyes and the thin blade in the next room, becoming much larger and looked to nearly be as long as he was tall, and broad with only a thin black wrapping to cover the metal of the hilt.  His clothes changed, too, shifting from the long coat in red and black into a simpler black tied tunic, but there were still black bands on his neck, as though the very pattern was a part of his body.

“Oh, maybe that was a bad idea,” he muttered, his eyes rolling up.  “Seems _bankai_ was keeping me awake,” he said as he fell back into the bed unconscious again.

Tony frowned and looked up at Bruce.  Bruce shook his head.  “I can’t explain this at all, the readings are impossible.”

Tony sighed, rubbing his face.  What in the world was going on?

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Ichigo Kurosaki had no idea why he’d agreed to it so soon after Soul Society had given him his powers back.  He should have told them to leave him the hell alone after what they’d done to him.  Ichigo couldn’t help the anger that had welled up inside of him.  After almost a year, leaving him on his own and assumingly powerless, they come back with these claims that they wanted to help him.  Help him, indeed.  Yes, they’d helped him handle the Xcution situation, but almost immediately, he was asked to help them by going to Hueco Mundo again.  It was obvious that they helped him to help themselves.  He’d gone in with Uryuu, Rukia, Renji, Chad and Orhime, of course, they had the most experience with Hueco Mundo.  It seemed that they couldn’t spare anyone else from Soul Society.  It didn’t matter.  Ichigo just wanted to destroy hollows and vent some of the frustration he was feeling. 

He and Uryuu had been together when a quadrupedal hollow charged him.  It was as though the thing had a homing signal on him directly.  Ichigo had no idea why, but it wasn’t that much of an issue.  He swung down, releasing a _getsuga_ only to see the thing sonido, and that’s when he realized it wasn’t an _adjunca_ class hollow, it was an _arrancar._ Not only was it an _arrancar_ but it was in full _ressureccion._

“Ichigo!  Back up!” yelled Uryuu, pulling the glowing blue bow into existence and taking aim at the arrancar.

“I can’t!” Ichigo yelled, tumbling head over foot with the creature that had pounced him.

He’d managed to hold to Zangetsu, somehow, and was pushing the creature’s snarling teeth away from him with the blade.  The blade wasn’t cutting it.  The blade was no more than a blunt implement to this creature.  He managed to get his feet up and kicked the thing in the underbelly only to have both feet go _into_ it and become trapped.  This was quickly going from bad to worse.  An arrancar he couldn’t cut.  An arrancar that could trap someone’s limb when they attacked it.  This was really bad.  Uryuu couldn’t take a shot either, if he did, there was a very good chance his Quincy arrow would go through him as well.

He heard Rukia’s voice.  “Uryuu, what’s that?  Ichigo!”

“Don’t attack it!” Ichigo screamed, turning his head from the pointed snout.  It kind of looked like a fox, come to think of it.  The Arrancar took after beasts and other creatures, so why not a fox?  Grimmjow had been a panther in _resurreccion._ “It has me trapped under it, I can’t get free…it has my feet inside it…”

Rukia froze. She knew hollows with that power.  She had seen a hollow consume and become Kaien before she had to kill her friend and lieutenant.  She couldn’t watch Ichigo die that way…not after all they’d done to get his power back to him. 

“Renji!” she yelled at the tattooed red-head behind her.  “Can your bankai do something?”

Renji stopped.  “It might take Ichigo out as well.  Maybe Orihime?”

Ichigo felt the world warping around him and there was emptiness under his back.  The arrancar stopped snarling and smiled.  Well, it smiled as well as something with a fox snout could smile.  The world titled and he saw a vivid red string wrapping around the arrancar and going into his chest.

“The hell is that?” he muttered, feeling something pulling on him from below. 

He turned his head and saw the thick red string running down through something like a garganta below him.  It wasn’t a spirit ribbon.  This…this was different.  And it was suddenly gone from the arrancar above him and it shrieked.  Then, he looked up to see it explode from one of Uryuu’s arrows where before they had glanced off the creature’s skin.  Had the red strings been protecting it?  He glanced to his chest and the string now flowed out and down into the darkness.

He saw Rukia’s face and the horror on it.  What was she seeing?  He arched backward and screamed because it felt like he was being ripped apart.  The only part of him that felt like it wasn’t pulled to pieces was his chest where the red string had entered him, and now, he was being pulled by the string through nothingness, pure blackness, deeper than the _Dangai._   Everything and nothing was happening at once, and he knew that something was happening that was irreversible.  Something inside of him told him that this, unlike his many trips across the worlds, was a one way trip.

Then, suddenly, he was staring into a blue sky.  He blinked, his head still spinning violently and he was falling.  He could hear the wind whipping his _Shihakuso_ back and forth.  He could hear the sounds of traffic below him.  Before the world blanked out, he heard manic giggling in his head.

He awoke with a start and a gasp the second time.  He was still restrained, but he was more than capable of breaking them again.  However, he was alone in this place.  Zangetsu said that they were in the “wrong world” and that he didn’t know how to get back.  He looked around the darkened room to see the dark haired guy from before; Tony Stark was his name, sitting in the corner with a tablet.  Ichigo was quiet for a moment and assessed what he’d seen before.

Tony Stark seemed to be the one in charge in some ways, and earlier he’d been wearing a suit and tie like some sort of businessman, yet he had on converse sneakers with it.  The blond, Captain Rogers Tony had called him, wore slacks and a button up shirt and looked vaguely like half the old men who played mahjong down at the tea house in the afternoon.  The Doctor, Bruce Banner, looked somewhat meek, with messy brown hair and a white lab coat over a simple polo shirt and a pair of relatively new looking slacks.  Both the Captain and the Doctor wore dress shoes.  Tony, however, seemed to be the one that while the most well dressed, also was the most comfortable.  He adjusted and saw that Tony had taken off the suit jacket and button up shirt and sat in a black tank shirt and his black slacks.  He was still wearing the dark blue converse sneakers.  He seemed immersed in the tablet at the moment.

Ichigo cleared his throat and Tony looked up from the dim glow of the tablet. Ichigo could see that the glow in the room wasn’t coming from the tablet, but from a blue glowing circle in his chest.

“You’re up again,” Tony said and stood, putting the tablet down on the table beside him.  “Feeling any better?”

Ichigo swallowed and nodded.  “My _shihakuso_ , my clothes, is mended, so my _reiatsu_ is back to normal,” he said, feeling his _kusodo_ and his _hakama_ thoughtfully and looking around.  “Where am I again?  I know you told me once but I’m still having trouble believing this.”

“New York,” Tony said, coming and sitting on the side of the bed and untying his hands.  “Bruce was worried because you passed out and we didn’t know why, and Fury’s over the top with the security, so they put the restraints on you.  I told them that it was useless since you busted them before. He didn’t want to give you back the blade either.”

Ichigo nodded and rubbed his wrists and looked around at the sparsely decorated room.  It wasn’t like a hospital room.  “So…I feel really odd,” he said, rubbing his head.  “Like I’m different than before I fell though that _garganta_ or whatever it was,” he said softly.

Tony looked at him.  “ _Garganta_ , isn’t that Spanish for throat?”

Ichigo nodded.  “Yes, it is a _pōtaru…_ ”  He paused trying to figure out the right English word for it.  “ _Ōpuningu_ , opening?”

Tony nodded.  “A portal then.”  He thought for another minute.  “How old are you?” he asked.

“Seventeen-ish,” Ichigo said, not really looking at him, instead trying to focus inward to figure out what had happened.  “Wait…” he muttered and looked at Tony. “Something’s different with me…but this isn’t my human body, so maybe that has something to do with it.”

Tony nodded.  So the kid had some sort of intuition, and said he had a human body, meaning he wasn’t human in this body.  “Yeah, Bruce said you were easily between sixteen and twenty or even older, but he couldn’t tell for sure.  You could be ten years old for all he can tell with his instruments, and since I invented them; that’s saying something.  You had talked about that opening, the portal, and we think it may have been something that took you across space and time.  We’ve had some run ins with those kind of objects, perhaps whatever you were fighting had one of them.”

“Yes, it happened when I went through the portal.  I felt my body being pushed and pulled apart and by the time I was on the other side, in the sky here; all my spiritual energy was drained.  Perhaps whatever that portal was supposed to do, my spiritual energy protected me,” he said thoughtfully.  “The backlash then recoiled into my form and gave me a form but doing so changed me to reflect my soul form’s age rather than my human body’s age and made me a corporeal visage.  Otherwise, you wouldn’t be able to see me without a _gigai_ or my human body, and this is most definitely not a _gigai_ or human body.  It is possible if I could get back, I’d be normal again, but I’m not sure,” he said thoughtfully.

“You’re pretty smart, huh?” Tony said, looking him over.  Tony had no idea what some of those strange words meant, but right now was more about rapport with him than understanding everything he said.

Ichigo shrugged.  “About some things,” he said.  “Actually even about this I’m pretty dumb.  Others know more about it than I do.  I sort of stumbled into doing what I do.”

“Well, I’m a genius, so I notice things,” Tony said, eyes scanning Ichigo’s face again.

Ichigo looked up and smirked.  “Not very humble, are you?”

“Hell no, I’m a billionaire too, so I don’t have to be,” he said, smirking in return.  “I’m also Iron Man.”  He was obviously quite proud of this fact.

“Iron Man?” Ichigo asked, frowning.  He had no idea what that was supposed to mean.

Tony’s face fell.  “Man, really?  That blows.  I can’t even impress you because you don’t know who I am,” he said, falling into the chair and crossing his arms in an almost childlike sulk.

“Why do you need to impress me?” Ichigo asked, laughing a little.

“I like to impress people,” Tony said, shrugging.

“Well, I’m impressed at how easily you’re handling this whole thing, Tony,” Ichigo said looking a long time at the other man.  Ichigo couldn’t explain it.  For some reason, he trusted him, and had since he first met him.  Despite the fact he knew nothing about him; he felt this need to make sure nothing happened to him.  He supposed if he didn’t have anyone else to protect, he’d have to pick someone who didn’t really need it.  What would someone like him need to be protected from?

Tony grinned at him.  “Oh, at least that’s something.  You should rest; I’ll be here if you wake up.”

Ichigo’s brows knitted in a scowl.  “Aren’t you going to sleep?”  The man looked tired, honestly.  He had circles under his eyes and looked rather exhausted.

Tony waved his hand at him as he sat down with the tablet.  “Don’t you start that, too.  Got enough mother hens around here,” he muttered and looked up. “I don’t sleep much, but you should rest.  Never know what tomorrow brings.”

Ichigo nodded and laid his head back, closing his eyes to appear to fall into a deep sleep.  He didn’t need it anymore, to be honest.  He felt fully rested and his reiatsu was back to normal.  It was a strange sensation.  He felt like he was in soul form still, but he apparently had gained a physical body similar to a gigai.  However, it was as though that body had been made as a part of his spiritual form.  He sighed and wondered about this new place.  Mostly, he was curious about his saviors/jailers.  He hadn’t decided which they were just yet.  He turned to his side so he could keep an eye on this Tony Stark.  As much as he tried, though, he couldn’t seem to build mistrust in him.  The others, he had no reason to trust, and he really had no reason to trust Tony.  Yet, he found himself doing just that.

A few minutes later, the tall blond man came into the room.  Tony seemed to refuse onerously to look up.  “Stark,” he said after a few long minutes with a sigh.  “You untied his restraints.  We talked about this.  Next you’ll disobey Fury and give him his weapon.”

Ichigo didn’t miss the involuntary twitch in Tony’s head at the other man’s words.  They irritated Ichigo, too, because it almost sounded like he was scolding an errant child, not discussing something with a man his own age, or perhaps older by the look.  Ichigo found his jaw clenching.

Tony looked up at him then.  “Cap, he’s more than capable of breaking them; you saw how strong he was.  He might even be stronger than you.  Besides, he’s much more comfortable with them off.  I know I would be.  In case you missed it, Fury agreed with me.”

“You have to stop going against what the director decides, though, Stark,” Steve said with a sigh, running a hand over his head.  “You’re going to do something that’s going to cause us a lot of trouble one of these days.  We have no idea what his capabilities are.  For all we know, he could be weaker than you without the suit and the show of strength was a fluke.”

Tony rolled his eyes dramatically and looked back down at his tablet, fingers flying across the surface as he spoke.  “Look, captain tight-pants, I know what I’m doing, even if you people don’t understand it.  Anyway, he’s a good kid, I know this.  I did this amazing thing, called talking to him.  Works wonders on getting to know someone, Capsicle.”

“We don’t know anything about him, Stark.  Every word he says could be a lie.  We don’t know if he’s Hydra.  If he’s another super soldier experiment, who knows what the results could be?  We could be dealing with another Bucky or Bruce.  We can’t take those chances.  He should be put into one of the secure cells until we figure out where he came from and what his intentions are,” Steve said, glancing over at Ichigo’s not-sleeping form.  Ichigo bristled at the words.  He was not about to be locked in a cell.

“He’s a kid.  He’s not dangerous,” Tony said.  “You all worry too much.  Fury already agreed to let me take him to the tower and keep an eye on him there.  He’s safer there than anywhere else if someone’s looking for him, and there’s no way he can get out if he’s a danger.  Plus he can have a decent room, and JARVIS can let us know if anything is wrong.  Fury knows that my security is better than any secure cell SHIELD has to offer.  That’s why he agreed.”

Steve shook his head, crossing his arms over his chest.  “Stark, I think it’s a bad idea.  I think…”

“Look, I don’t need to know what you think, I already know.  You made that clear, and you’re just sore that Fury agreed with me and not you.  We’re not just locking him in a cell because he might be a threat, or do you only believe that to be true for your friends?  Fury agreed with me about that, remember?  I’m not stupid, Spangles.  I know very well that he could be a new ally or enemy.  I sure as hell don’t want to turn a potential ally into an enemy because we tossed him into a cell instead of showing him some common courtesy,” Tony muttered, not looking up from his tablet now.  It was obvious that he was trying to will the larger man away.

Steve snorted.  “I hope you’re right, Stark.  I really do.”

“I’m always right,” Tony muttered as the blond man walked out of the room. 

Ichigo watched silently as he stopped tapping on the tablet and put it down on his knees, dropping his head into his hands.  Ichigo could see the tremors in his hands and he wondered what it was about this Steve person that made him so nervous.  Tony sat up straight and took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a long moment.  Finally he opened them and looked down to realize his hands were shaking still.

“Dammit,” he muttered, reaching into the tablet case and pulling out a bottle of pills.  He shook out one and swallowed it without any water.  “Screw him, stupid star spangled ass.  Just keep his out of date mouth shut…”

Ichigo frowned and wondered just what that was about.  He sensed a great deal of tension between the two men, and it was more than just simple pecking order of a captain and a lower ranking officer.  Actually, this Stark didn’t seem like a military type at all.  He mused until about a half an hour passed and Ichigo was startled by a thunk.  He looked to see that Tony had fallen asleep, his tablet sliding off his lap onto the floor.  He had leaned back in the chair and while he wasn’t snoring he was most definitely out.

Ichigo got up quietly and knelt down and grabbed the tablet.  He tapped a couple things and found it wasn’t locked.  He didn’t understand half of the things on it.  Perhaps he wasn’t exaggerating when he said he was a genius.  He was curious, though, about the glow in his chest.  He’d never seen something like that before.  So he put the tablet down on the small table and leaned over to pull the front of his black tank style shirt down to get a look at whatever it was.  He frowned to realize it was embedded into his chest, and deeply by the look.  He looked around it and it seemed to be some sort of power source or something.  He let the shirt go and stepped back and sighed.  He didn’t know enough about biology or engineering to figure that out.  He glanced at the tablet and nodded to himself.  He wondered if he could get online with that.

He picked it back up and sat back down on the bed and looked for anything that looked like a browser when a voice spoke quietly from the tablet.

“May I be of assistance?” came a smooth, English accented voice.

Ichigo almost dropped the thing.  “Um, oh, who are you?” he said quietly.

“I am JARVIS.  Sir’s Artificial Intelligence interface.”

“Oh, okay, I’m sorry, he fell asleep, and I was just going to see if I could get online with this,” he said quietly.  “I want to see who these people are, you know.”

“Of course, Mr. Kurosaki,” the voice, quiet Ichigo realized, as though it knew Tony was asleep.  On the screen a browser popped up in Japanese.  “I have pulled up an appropriate browser for your usage.  If you require more assistance, please ask.”

“Um, yeah, thanks,” he said, feeling weird talking to a tablet.  So this Tony Stark had created an artificial intelligence, he thought to himself. 

He spent the next few hours researching the people he just met, starting with this Tony Stark, SHIELD and the Avengers.  What he found made quite an impact on him.  For one, this wasn’t his world at all.  There were similarities; actually, things were almost identical history-wise, up until recently when Ichigo’s knowledge of world events and this world’s diverged.  Ichigo’s world had not suffered an earth shaking alien invasion in recent years.  His world didn’t have a lot of the things that had happened here, Hydra, this Mandarin guy, a second alien incursion.  He’d never heard the names of this Iron Man, Captain America, or any of these people.  Of course, he had no knowledge of American history, but from what he could tell, the news of what had happened reached all the major Japanese news outlets.  He also had no knowledge of this Stark Industries which Tony was the head of.  In this world, Stark’s inventions and products were used worldwide, and a great many of them were in Japanese ads he came across.  He would have seen them in his world if Stark existed there.  He failed to notice the camera watching him and following him when he moved around the room silently. 

Ichigo found it all completely fascinating.  This universe almost seemed bigger than his own.  Sure, his world had Soul Society and random hollow attacks that were often blamed on gas leaks.  It seemed here they had random seeming attacks blamed on gas explosions too, only they were these powered people and enhanced people.  There was an entry for something called inhumans.  Apparently, aliens called the Kree had tampered with humans a long time ago, triggering these natural powers.  So he would be what they called inhuman?  People who came by their power naturally?  He supposed that made sense.  He was very curious to see exactly how much power he had retained.  He honestly didn’t know for sure what, if anything he could do here.  He knew he had more strength than a human form, and unlike regular soul form he was experiencing hunger as though he were in his human body.

A little more research explained the Captain Steve Rogers and his odd attitude and strange dress, and Tony’s amusing reference to him as a “capsicle” was about him being frozen in ice for a long time.  The doctor was actually a huge beast creature called the Hulk, but only when he got really angry.  Sounded somewhat like Zaraki.  He shook his head and kept looking.   SHIELD.  A new window popped open, but it wasn’t a browser window.  Curious he investigated and found it was the database of this SHIELD organization.  He wondered how that got on there, but he continued to read and see what he could find. 

The current information was sporadic.  Apparently, this SHIELD bunch was fighting this evil organization called Hydra that had tried to take them apart from the inside.  No doubt that’s why the _taichou_ Rogers was hesitant about Ichigo.  They couldn’t trust their own people, let alone new people who came falling from the sky.  They were searching for a scepter that this Loki had brought to earth that was able to control those it touched.  They believed that this Hydra had it and was using it to do all sorts of dangerous and nefarious things to people.

It was getting on toward dawn when he put the tablet down beside him and stretched his arms above his head.  A whine from Tony’s direction got his attention.

In his sleep, Tony had moved to curl in on himself in the chair.  Ichigo realized that he was muttering under his breath and starting to thrash.  At first it was minor, hands twitching and shaking his head, then he threw his hand over his head and almost fell out of the seat he was in.  Ichigo got up and saw he was covered in a sheen of sweat and his face was locked into a grimace.  He knew that look, he’d worn it himself after his mother died.  It was the look of someone locked into a nightmarish hell of their own making.

Ichigo kneeled beside him and put a hand on his knee.  Tony woke up with a start and nearly kicked Ichigo in the face, but of course, the shinigami’s superior reflexes caught his leg before he could.  Tony was panting for breath and obviously had been in some sort of nightmare.  He swallowed and looked around, then glanced at where Ichigo was holding his thigh where he’d tried to kick him.

“Damn, I fell asleep, that doesn’t happen much,” he muttered, pulling himself up to sit in the seat as Ichigo let go of him and stood up. 

Ichigo picked up the water bottle they’d left for him and handed it to Tony as he knelt back down beside him.  “You alright?” he asked softly. 

Tony drank the water quickly, and nodded as he sat it down.  “Bad dream, that’s all.”

Ichigo arched one orange brow.  “That was one hell of bad dream,” he said finally.

“Yeah, nothing I’m not used to,” he said, blinking drowsily.  “I knew that was going to happen after I took…” he stopped and shook his head.  “Never mind.  Why are you even awake?”

“I don’t need that much sleep in this form.  If I was in my human body, sure, but this is my soul form, I think, or something like it,” he said with a slight smile.  “You sure you’re okay?” he asked, again, growing more concerned.  Tony’s face was still pale.

Tony nodded, wiping a hand over his forehead.  “Yeah, yeah, just fine.  Um, so, what time is it, JARVIS?” he asked.

“Five twenty three am, Sir,” the tablet replied from the bed where Ichigo had left it.

Ichigo handed it back.  “Sorry, I borrowed it to do some research,” he said with a smile.  “Is that okay?”

Tony nodded.  “Yeah, JARVIS let you in, so that’s fine,” he said, looking at the tablet.  “What do you say that you come to my tower today?  More comfortable than this helicarrier.  I’d like to run some real tests on your abilities and figure out just what you are.”  Ichigo could easily see he wasn’t telling all the reasons he wanted to return to his home.

Ichigo nodded and stood, stumbling a bit.  “What the hell,” he muttered and looked around.  “I’m not too stable,” he said, confused.  Granted, it was the first time he’d stood up in this “body”.

Tony shrugged.  “You did fall out of the sky, remember?  Come on, we’ll head out,” Tony said with a sigh, getting to his own feet.

“Shouldn’t we ask that director or whatever?” Ichigo asked.  Now that he was standing, he realized he was a few inches taller than Tony.  That was strange, of course, a lot of the shinigami where overly tall.  “And what about Zangetsu?” he said, looking over at the next bay.  “I can’t leave this place without him.  He’s a part of me.”

Tony shrugged.  “Nah, I do what I want most the time,” he said, shoving both hands into his pockets and going to the next bay and overriding the lock. 

He was pretty sure he set off a silent alarm though, but he didn’t care. Tony honestly just wanted out of the helicarrier right now more than anything, but he didn’t want to leave this Ichigo by himself with the rest of SHIELD.  He’d seen what kind of tests SHIELD had run on “powered” people and “enhanced” people when he had JARVIS hack the system before he came back for this round of Avengers Adventures as he called it.

Ichigo stepped in and grabbed the sword and put it onto his back.  Tony smiled and led Ichigo down the empty halls of the helicarrier to the bay his armor was kept in.  “So, do you like, fly?” he asked, stepping back into the open armor.  Ichigo watched, fascinated as the armor seemed to encase his body completely.  It added height to his form.  He wondered if it was a constant issue for him.  He knew before he gained his last couple inches over the last year; he was constantly annoyed at people that towered over him.

Ichigo shook his head.  “I don’t fly, I _shunpo_ …er, flash step.  See, watch,” he said, and flashed to the other side of the bay and back. 

Tony blinked as the armor finished encasing him.  “Damn, so is it like a teleportation or something?”

“No, I just move really fast,” Ichigo said with a shrug.  “And I can used my _reiatsu_ to stabilize myself in the air should I need to.  So I guess, I don’t fly but I can walk in the air if I need to.”

“Well, I fly, so follow me,” he said, his voice changing after the mask came down.  He punched some buttons on his arm and the platform he was on began to rise.  Ichigo jumped on it deftly and rode it up with him to the outside of the helicarrier.

Ichigo looked around and smiled.  “So this is New York,” he said, looking around as the lights completely lit up the darkness around and below them.  It was like being in Tokyo at night.  It was always astonishing.  Even the brightest night in Karakura Town wasn’t this vivid.

Tony nodded.  “Sure, give you a tour later.  Want to race back to my tower?”

“I don’t know where it is,” Ichigo said, looking at him with a scowl.

Tony pointed toward a series of tall buildings.  “That one there, with the huge A on the side of it.  That’s my tower.  Avengers Tower, I’m sure you saw that in the stuff you were reading while I was asleep.  There’s a landing platform at the top.  Think you can get there without me helping you?” he said, and Ichigo could hear the smirk in his voice.

“Oh yeah,” Ichigo said, tracing the path.  There were plenty places to launch off of without a problem on his way.

Behind them, someone was yelling at them.  Tony turned back and looked at Ichigo.  “Better go before papa Fury gets here to give us a verbal thrashing.”

Ichigo snorted and launched through the air in _shunpo_.  He touched down a few times, glancing back to see he was well ahead of his companion.  Tony could move quickly, but nothing compared to his flash steps.  So it seemed that he had retained the ability to flash step at the same rate.  He had doubted it when he tried it the first time.  So did that mean he had retained his other abilities as well?

Finally, he landed about ten minutes before Tony on the platform.  He supposed he could have taken off, but what point was there to it?  He wouldn’t figure out anything without help.  His best choice right now was to stay with this genius and the people he worked for.  They had resources and maybe could get him back home.  Tony touched down and walked down a ramp as robotic arms removed the armor.  Again, Ichigo was fascinated by the mechanical marvels this man had.

“Damn, that was fan-freaking-tastic,” Tony said, putting his hand on the palm reading lock as he stared in disbelief at Ichigo.  “I’ve never seen anything move so fast.”

They came in.  “Welcome home, Sir, and Mr. Kurosaki,” JARVIS piped up from the room around them.  “Director Fury and Captain Rogers are in the living area.”

Tony rolled his eyes.  “Of course they are,” he muttered, leading Ichigo into the room where Fury and the blond man stood looking rather stern.  Ichigo walked several paces behind him and picked up on the subtle tremor to Tony’s shoulders when he entered.  What was it about this Steve Rogers that set Tony’s nerves on edge?

“What are you thinking, Stark?” the tall, dark skinned man with an eye patch said, turning toward him.  “You freaked out half the helicarrier with that stunt.  I know we discussed this, but I wanted it to be a controlled transfer, not you jetting off with him all of a sudden at five thirty in the morning!  And I did _not_ agree to give him his weapon back.”

Tony rolled his eyes.  “It’s a sword!  It’s not like Loki’s mind control stick, it doesn’t do anything but stab people, and there are all sorts of pointy things around to do that with.”

Ichigo crossed his arms and glared from under his brows at the man as Tony spoke.  This was the Director Fury he’d read about. “No one jetted off with me, I got here on my own, thank you,” he said and leaned against the wall.  For some reason these two and the way they talked to Tony were bothering him.  He had no reason to be bothered, because they were right.  If they’d followed procedure, it would have been better.  He had all too readily agreed to Tony’s plan to leave like that.  He was confused by this need to both agree with and defend Tony.

Both Steve and Fury stared at him.  “What?” Steve said with a shocked expression.

“I said, I got here on my own.  I _shunpoed_.  Beat him by ten minutes, and I stopped to look around on the way.” 

Ichigo was not particularly liking these two at the moment.  So far, Tony had shown him consideration and was trying to help him out.  These two were treating him like he was some sort of dangerous monster; granted, he was a dangerous monster but considering their hulk monster, they should really tone it down some.  He stopped that thinking though.  What the hell was happening in his head?  He wanted to beat these people within an inch of their lives for being mean to Tony.  He shook it away. 

“Really?” Tony said, frowning.  “You stopped along the way and you still beat me?”

Ichigo smirked.  “Yeah, the top of that skyscraper halfway between here, and the building across from here.  Really a lovely view.”

“How the hell did you move that fast?” Steve asked, glaring at Tony as he spoke, as though somehow Tony was at fault for everything that had occurred.

“Hey, I am not from here, so I don’t know what the hell your problem is other than what JARVIS showed me on Tony’s tablet.  And what I found out I’m not sure what it is I think about you people or this place yet.  I do know one thing; I don’t want to hurt you, and maybe I can help you,” Ichigo glanced at Tony who was watching him closely. Ichigo was actively fighting the irrational anger at the way they were speaking to Tony.  He had no idea where this sudden flood of emotion was coming from.

“I’m not in this world because I want to be.  I do not want to mess with your world.  I would like to go back to my own, but I am not an idiot.  I know that may not be possible.  Look, I’m trying to figure out exactly what happened, and I have no intention of doing a thing around here to harm anyone.”

Fury stared at him for a long moment then looked at Tony.  “You don’t know the full abilities of SHIELD.”  Fury kept it quiet that he knew everything that had gone on in the room, having watched from his office on the hellicarrier.  He wanted to see how far this trust of Tony went with this kid.  There was something about Tony that was sucking this kid in to him.

“I think I do,” Ichigo said, flash stepping behind Fury.  He winced though as the two men turned around.  Great, now he was antagonizing him.  He had to get this whatever it was under control.  This wasn’t like him.  This was completely erratic behavior even for him.

“Seems JARVIS likes me or something because he let me into a lot of files.   I’ve seen the things that you do to people with powers and what you call enhanced people like the Hulk.  I’m tired of fighting, too.  I’ve been fighting nonstop for the last few years, and I’ve spent more time than I can count in battles that would make you cringe.  Yeah, by human count, I guess I’m nearly eighteen in my world.  That doesn’t count the time I’ve spent outside of my body in different worlds.  Maybe a few months, maybe years for all I know.  Time doesn’t flow the same there.”

Fury and Steve turned around.  “What the hell was that?  Do you have magic?” Steve said, gasping at seeing the flash step for the first time.

“I’m not magic.  I’m a shinigami.  A Soul Reaper.  A Death God.  Whatever you want to call me in English.  I reap the souls of the dead and send them across to Soul Society to be put through the rebirth cycle again.  I fight and purify the hollows that try and consume souls before I get to them.  They’re spirits that are lost in the world of the living and they’re dangerous,” he paused and looked around.  “However, I don’t know if they exist in your world like mine.  I guess I’ll find out.  My _reiatsu_ will draw them because I suck at controlling it.  I am just a kid, after all.”  Ichigo paused and touched Zangetsu’s hilt.  “And as for my sword, you won’t remove it from me again.  This is not metal; it is forged from my soul, just like my clothes.  I would have had no problem getting it back from you in that helicarrier but I didn’t want to harm anyone.  I waited until Tony offered to get it.  To be honest, I would have waited longer, but I needed to have it back again to feel complete.  I do apologize for acting rashly when presented with the opportunity.  Zangetsu is the only thing I have left of my old life.”

Steve and Fury stared for a moment and Ichigo flash stepped back to his original position near Tony.  “Now, if we have that taken care of, Tony was going to show me to a room I could stay in.  I understand that he has good security, and you were planning to bring me here anyway.  It may not have happened as you desired, but it happened nonetheless.”

Ichigo reached out and offered Tony his hand.  He smiled and nodded when Tony took it, frowning.    “If you don’t mind, Tony?”

Tony nodded, very confused.  “Um, yeah, this way,” he said, leading him off and down a hallway to the guest rooms.  He had no idea why his heart was pounding in his ears at the moment.


	2. Trust Issues

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ichigo discovers his powers as he lets the Avengers run tests on him. He's confused, and trying to appear in control. However, he doesn't fool everyone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Revisions Uploaded 5-22-15
> 
> Beta'd Emmagem803

“What have you gotten us into now, Ichigo?” the white hollow said as soon as Ichigo’s eyes opened in their inner world. 

Ichigo was sitting on the side of the building of his strange sideways world and both Zangetsu and the hollow were staring at him.  It still looked the same to him.  It still felt the same as well.  Somehow, he’d expected a lot of changes from the way things were in his soul form and here.  He really had thought that perhaps communing with the hollow and the Zanpakutou spirit would have been different.  Granted, both were a piece of his soul.

Ichigo snorted.  “I didn’t do anything.  In case you missed it, I fell through a damn _garganta_ into another fucking universe,” he said moodily, crossing his arms over his chest.  At least in here he could speak Japanese and say what he wanted to say.  Speaking so much English was taxing.  He was glad, however, for the thorough classes in English his school had given.

“Pfft,” the hollow said and rolled his black and gold eyes.  “So what?  Ain’t like you left a lot of stuff behind in the old one.  Why not enjoy this one, seems like fun to me!”

Ichigo groaned.  “I swear, what are you going on about now?”

“The short glowey one, take that for a spin,” he said with a wide grin.

Ichigo blinked.  “What in the three worlds are you talking about, you albino nutcase bastard?” he said, frowning deeply at his white copy.  He knew exactly what he was talking about.  He always talked about this, and Ichigo was not the least bit surprised that that hadn’t changed despite going to an entirely new universe that they possibly couldn’t leave again.

“Just what I said.  He’s begging for it.  He needs a strong type like you to show him some deep love,” he said, spinning around and thrusting his hips at Ichigo.  “Ooh, and there were some hot chicks on that whatever it was, did you see that little minx with the black hair?  I bet you could rock her world with our package.  Oh, or you could take both…I wouldn’t even mind that big blond boy, but he might not wanna be topped…so I’d go for the good looking cute _uke_ bitches, if you find yourself in a manly mood.  I mean, if you aren’t, grab that blondie, I’m sure he’s got a thick piece that could make us feel very nice.  Otherwise, go grab a girl or two.  Any chick is good to bang…” he said with a wistful look on his face.

Ichigo flopped back onto the building and stared into the sideways sky.  He thought it very appropriate that his world was like this right now.  He felt extremely sideways.  “Seriously, is sex all you think of, Shiro?” he muttered.  He had come into his inner world for answers, not a tirade on sex or the lack thereof.

“Not my fault you won’t fuck anyone.  I’m backed up to my eyeballs in here,” he said and jumped, landing with a thump on Ichigo’s stomach.  “Shit, I’d take you finding a damned sheep to fuck at this point.  If it’s hot, tight and…”

“Dammit, bastard,” Ichigo muttered, shoving the other version of himself off before he could finish.  “I do not just run around and sleep with everyone you want me to sleep with, in case you haven’t noticed,” he said, rolling onto his stomach and putting his face in the glass of the skyscraper he was sitting on.  “Was kind of nice not having to listen to your perverted monologues when I was talking to someone.”

Except, of course, that was a complete lie.  Missing Shiro and the old man had been something very painful after the loss of his powers.  More than anything, the comfort that slipping into this private, subconscious world had been something he desperately missed.  No matter what, he could trust Shiro and Zangetsu.  They were pieces of him, and they couldn’t lie to him like Soul Society or even his father.  In the end, even his friends and Kon had lied to him.  So many lies, so many half-truths…was it any wonder there was a part of him that thought being somewhere new was exhilarating?

Shiro gave a shrill manic giggle.  “Look, my tongue is already blue, and you’re givin’ me blue balls to go with it,” he said, licking the back of Ichigo’s neck before Ichigo slapped his white head soundly.

“The status of _our_ balls is not your problem, you white freak,” Ichigo muttered into his crossed arms.  “Last time I checked, _you’re_ the horse, and I’m the king.”

Shiro crossed his arms and glared at Zangetsu who was standing on the end of the flagpole like usual watching from under his fringe of black hair.  Shiro grumbled.  “Yeah, well this horse is tired of you having relations with your hand instead of a hot, tight and wet hole,” he muttered before he sighed and rolled his head on his shoulders.  “You see what I’m dealing with?  Bastard finally gets his powers back, and I can finally talk to him again, and this is what I get!”

Zangetsu sighed. “Shiro, you are too forward.  Ichigo needs to work this out on his own.  He does not need your vulgar impulses coloring his thinking.  Do you not wish to return to our home?”

Shiro rolled his eyes.  “Ojjisan, I don’t care, honestly, here, there, wherever, this bastard just needs to get fucking laid!”

Zangetsu shook his head.  “You are, again, halfway correct.”

Ichigo looked up and stared at Zangetsu for a moment.  “What?  How is he halfway correct?”

“The red string of fate has brought us here, Ichigo.  Did you not notice the arrancar’s beast form was that of a fox?  The kitsune are notorious for tricking humans and shinigami alike.  I feel that this one has somehow forced you to follow the red string of fate you saw despite being separated by whole worlds,” he said.  “I cannot tell all to you, Ichigo.  There is much you need to discover on your own.  Such is the way of the string of fate.”

“Yes, does this mean we get laid?” Shiro said, sitting up from where he’d fallen prostrate beside Ichigo in a pantomime of his host’s position.

Ichigo snorted.  “Seriously, Shiro, that’s what you get out of this?” he said, looking at his white copy.

“Baby, you just point my…our…dick in the right direction, and I will be one happy fucking hollow,” Shiro said with a mad sounding giggle.  “Seriously, find a fucking glory hole, get it sucked, I don’t give a shit.  I just want someone other than _you_ doing it.”

Ichigo glared at him.  “I swear, it was nice to be able to jerk off without anyone watching for a while,” he muttered with a snort.  “You wonder why I don’t do that often, well, you’re watching me all the time, bastard!”

Ichigo shook his head and thumped it on the glass and stared into the ever empty rooms of his sideways world.  He wondered why there was never anything in the buildings.  He sat up suddenly.  “Someone’s coming, I’ve got to resurface.  Behave, Shiro, or I’ll go join a fucking monastery and take a vow of chastity just to spite you.”

Shiro glared at him.  “You would do that too, wouldn’t you? Fucking make is so we never get laid again,” he said with narrowed eyes.

Ichigo made a face and faded out.  Shiro crossed his arms in a frump.  “Bastard.”

“Shiro, it is his body.  We are only here because we are his power,” Zangetsu said with a deep sigh.  “We are a part of him, not ever to be separate from him, remember that.”

“Fuck that, I want to get laid,” he said, flashing off into the distance.

Zangetsu watched him go with a brow creased in concern.  He was sure now.  Shiro had been the cause of this.  Shiro acted well enough to fool Ichigo, but not to fool Zangetsu.  He knew that the burse of power that opened the _garganta_ had not only come from that arrancar.  He contemplated it some more and sighed.  Ichigo would be upset, no doubt.  Especially since as far as he could tell, there was no way home for them again.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

The knocking brought him back to reality.  Ichigo blinked and yelled out, “ _Hairimasu_ ,” before he was even fully conscious.  He blinked and looked up to see two people at his doorway.  A woman with short red hair and a man with sandy colored hair stood there staring at him with appraising eyes.

“Can I help you?” he asked, looking them both over. 

Fighters, both of them agile, he thought, the man was ranged combatant, and the woman was capable in hand to hand if he didn’t miss his guess.  She moved with catlike grace, but more than that, her gaze was incredibly calculating and her muscles were all tight.  The man had worn spots on his hands where he probably used a bow.  Both were dressed in casual appearing clothes, but they had more tells.  More than that, he had an unfair advantage of having read their files.  It was nice to see things that confirmed what he had read already.

“We just came in from the field and heard about your…appearance,” the woman said.  “I’m Natasha Romanoff, and this is Clint Barton, we work with the Avengers…” she began.

“As code name Black Widow and Hawkeye, yes I read about you in the files JARVIS showed me,” Ichigo said, still sitting on the bed with Zangetsu across his knees.

Natasha looked at Clint and back to Ichigo.  “I understand you’ve given the story that you are a shinigami.  You know that is impossible.  There are no such things,” she said sternly.

Ichigo shrugged.  “Your belief in what I am is not necessary.  I am a shinigami.  At least, that’s what I was in my world.  Here…I don’t know what exactly I am.”

Clint looked at Natasha.  “Shinigami?” he asked. 

Natasha stared at him.  “A Japanese folklore, a myth.  The idea that there are death gods, like our idea of a grim reaper, that come and take the souls of the dead.  A myth.”

“We do,” Ichigo said, putting Zangetsu down on the bed and standing slowly.  “The primary duty of a shinigami is to perform a _konso_ , a passing, on souls and send them safely across to Soul Society to reenter the cycle of rebirth.  Bright souls show power, and they are recruited by the Soul Reaper Academy and in turn become shinigami.  I’m a little different; I’m a human with soul reaper powers.  Long story.  Our other duty is to purify dark souls, hollow souls that are stuck in the world of the living and unable to pass over with a hunger for consuming other souls.  Of course, this is all the crap they tell me.  I didn’t go to this academy and I sure don’t know all the spiritual junk.  I just kill hollows, and I was fighting in the realm of Hueco Mundo when some sort of _kitsune_ arrancar shoved me through a weird ass _garganta_ ,” he said, standing up and laying Zangetsu on the bed.  He sighed and went over to look out the window.

“I don’t see hollows, and I don’t sense any shinigami.  So it could be there are none here, and my very existence is an anomaly.  Perhaps that is why I gained a physical form when I passed between the worlds.  Here, there aren’t spiritual beings like me, and the portal altered me to suit my surroundings,” he said with a deep sigh.  “Doesn’t help me figure out how to get back.”

Natasha moved to try and grab the sword, having been told by Fury that it wouldn’t be a bad idea if the opportunity presented itself.  Doing so wasn’t effective because before she could even get to the bed where the blade lay, it was gone, as though it disappeared, and Ichigo was standing behind her, the blade in the ground in front of him as he leaned on the hilt. 

“Now, now, don’t go touching it, please, I don’t know what will happen if you touch the bare blade,” he said with a smirk.  Natasha turned around.  “No one is going to take Zangetsu again, thank you very much.”

“How the hell did you do that?” she asked.  “You teleported.  Like Director Fury said.”  Fury had told her he was very fast.  Fury, however, had underestimated Ichigo’s speed.  No matter how skilled and fast she was, Natasha was still human.

Ichigo rolled his eyes and swung Zangetsu up on onto his back easily.  “No, I don’t teleport.  I suck at _kido_ , er, demon arts I think is the English, anyway, I don’t do that stuff.  I fight with my _zanpakutou_ and that’s about it.  All I need.  I _shunpo_.  Flash step is the closest English, I think.  And if I’m in _bankai_ I move fast enough that I can look like I’m in multiple places at once.”

“ _Zanpakutou_?” Natasha asked.  “Soul…soul blade?  No, soul cutter blade?  Is that what that means?” she said, glancing over the frankly oversized sword.  There was no way in her mind he could quickly move that massive piece of steel.

“You know some Japanese, Tony does as well.  Yes, normally it only cuts spiritual beings; however, it seems to have been altered as well, though Zangetsu is still present as usual.  As is my hollow.”

Natasha frowned.  “Hollow?  Didn’t you say they were evil?”

“They do evil things, I suppose, they aren’t inherently evil, just creatures of drive and hunger.  I have one that shares my soul.  Another long story.  I’m in control, though, so don’t worry about him.  Lately he only has one thing…dammit, Shiro, go back to sleep, horny bastard,” he muttered under his breath, looking up.  He shook his head.  “He’s rather noisy since we arrived.  He’s rather adamant about what he wants.”

Natasha and Clint exchanged a glance and looked at him again.  “So, what do you want?” Clint asked finally.

Ichigo shook his head.  “I don’t want anything right now; I just am trying to figure out what is even possible.  I don’t know exactly how I got here, I don’t know if I can go home, so I’m going to wait and see what happens.  I’m currently waiting for Tony to return.  He said he had meetings at his business this morning and then he wished to run tests on me.  I agreed to allow it.  He wanted to test my speed and the difference in my _shikai,_ first release I think in English, and _bankai,_ second release, abilities.  Other than that, I’d like to go home, but I don’t know if that can happen.”

Natasha nodded.  “We’ll be watching you,” she said, glaring at him.

“Kind of hard not to when Tony has cameras everywhere, Romanoff,” he said with a shrug.  “If you do not mind, Tony said I could visit this communal kitchen for lunch with him.”  He paused and looked at the pair.  “You can come, if you want?  I’d much rather have a discussion across a table than feel as though I’m being interrogated.”

They exchanged a glance and left, and Ichigo followed them out.  Beside him, the panels lit up and Ichigo followed them away from the pair toward the kitchen.  Natasha and Clint followed behind him, curious as to what exactly he was up to here.  As they came into the common area, they saw that Bruce was already in the kitchen and Steve was sitting at the table.  No doubt Tony would come up for lunch as well.  The two spies sat down at the table by Steve and watched as Ichigo began to talk with Bruce in the kitchen about food.

Something about him told Natasha that he was telling the truth.  He felt almost naïve.  It was an odd thing, as though watching a child play at being an adult.  She had no idea why, but there was something incredibly innocent about him. 

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Perhaps the worst part of owning a multinational, multimillion dollar company was administration.  Tony had delegated much of it to Pepper, making her his CEO, but there were times when the board needed to see him, for some inane reason.  Of course, today was one of those days that he had to be at the board meeting, which was annoying because he had an interesting and confounding person stashed upstairs that he wanted to run tests on.

He left just as everyone broke for lunch to escape to his upper floors.  Finally, Pepper said he could go and she’d handle the rest.  He hadn’t told her yet about the strange person he had hidden.  She’d worry, and he didn’t want that.  So he just hoped that his guest had been treated well while he was gone.  JARVIS would have let him know if anything had happened, he was sure of that.  He got off on the common floor because Bruce had promised to cook Japanese food in honor of their guest.  Bruce was wary of him, but not as much as Steve had been.  Tony knew that Steve’s distrust had more to do with the Hydra agents destroying most of SHIELD and his own best friend trying to kill him.

He found Natasha, Steve, and Clint all sitting at the dining table trying to appear like they weren’t watching the kitchen.  Tony rolled his eyes and stepped into the doorway to hear Bruce explaining what he was doing to Ichigo and Ichigo pointing out ways to do certain things differently.  Tony leaned against the doorway.

“Bruce, didn’t know you spoke so much Japanese,” Tony said smiling at them.

Both men looked up.  Ichigo grinned.  “Banner- _sensei_ certainly knows a lot of different things, Tony-san,” he said with a shrug.  “ _Sumimasen_ ,” Ichigo said, giving a slight bow to Bruce and smiling at Tony.

“Well, Tony, how did the meetings go?” he asked.

Tony rolled his eyes.  “Boring as always.  Worst part of this job,” he muttered, going to the dining area and sitting down across from the other three.  “I guess you met everyone now?” he asked, looking at Ichigo as he sat down.

“Ah, yes, I met Romanoff and Barton a little while ago, and of course, I remember Rogers- _taichou_ from yesterday,” he said with a smile at each of them in turn.  “Tony, will we do the tests you wanted after lunch?” he asked, turning back to Tony.

Tony nodded.  “Yeah, that works.  I’m free the rest of the day, and well, obviously you’re free.  Did you like have a job or something where you came from?” Tony asked, leaning back and crossing his arms.

Ichigo shook his head.  “No, I was in high school; well, as much as I could be when I wasn’t in Soul Society.  Lately though I had been busy with several power related things.”

Bruce came out with a large tray of various dishes, all Japanese, most as authentic as he could make them.  Ichigo smiled.  “Ah, Banner-sensei, many thanks, this is wonderful!  I never expected someone from America to know so much about our food.”

The group ate in silence, Steve glaring at the different things more than eating them, but he did eat what he could identify.  Once they were done, Ichigo smiled and bowed to Bruce after he stood.  Bruce’s choices were vegetarian, of course, and Clint picked out the cooked bits of chicken.

“Again, thanks, now, Tony, we shall do your tests while I am in good spirits, yes?” he said with a grin at him.

Tony nodded and put his napkin over his plate.  Ichigo had noticed that he didn’t eat much at all; in fact, he more pushed the food around his plate than ate it.  Curious, he thought to himself. 

“Stark, shouldn’t you have some of us present?” Steve asked, looking up with that same dubious expression Ichigo had noticed before.  He was still suspicious.

Tony started to say something but Ichigo interjected.  “Of course, I’d be glad if you came with us, it would be a good chance for me to see what your capabilities are as well.  I am new here, after all.  I should know what my companions can do as well.”

Tony glanced at him, slightly surprised but nodded, and then Ichigo surprised him even further by grabbing him by the hand again and pulling him toward the elevator.  “Research lab, right?” he asked as they stepped in with the others.

Tony blinked.  “Um yeah,” he said but the lift was already moving.  Tony glared at the panel.  Just what was JARVIS doing anyway?  He had to admit, having someone around who wasn’t afraid to take control besides Steve was nice.  It made him feel less anxious around the super soldier.

A few minutes later they were in the largest research lab which had all the instruments and scans that Tony might need.  Ichigo glanced around and nodded as he spun around.  He had never seen a place so amazing and scientific.  He wondered if Kurosuchi or Urahara would have had a fainting spell at seeing this much high tech equipment.  It was more than impressive, and to think Tony had invented much of it.

“Alright, Tony, do you want me at my highest power level?” he asked as the others congregated behind the control panel in the back of the room. 

Ichigo honestly had no idea what he could do.  He could be setting himself up for failure, he knew that.  Perhaps abnormal strength was the only ability that had transferred with him.  What if he had no ability to use _Getsuga_ or his Vizard mask anymore?  These tests were for Tony and the others, but they were also so Ichigo could figure out exactly what he was capable of.

Tony nodded and looked up, excited to see what this new being could do.  “Yeah, whatever you do.”

Ichigo nodded and pulled his sword and summoned his _bankai_.  When the smoke cleared, he stood in his strange looking jacket again.  He caught the shocked look on the two assassins.  They hadn’t seen him release his _bankai_ earlier.  Considering he had been in _bankai_ earlier, he’d been relatively certain that he could achieve it.  He smiled.  Well, he wasn’t going to tell them he had no idea what his abilities were, so he’d have to act like he knew.

“This is _bankai_.  Basically we have three forms.  I only have two; I skip the normal form where the sword looks like a normal katana.  _Shikai_ is the first form we take, where our swords alter and have special capabilities.  I have a combat weapon, meaning my only special attack is my _getsuga tenshou_.  Are these walls blast proof?” he said, looking behind him.  This was going to be really embarrassing if it didn’t work.

Tony looked up from the console, not believing what the readings were saying.  “Um, yeah, they’ll take a nuclear blast and stay up.”  He saw the look Ichigo gave him.  “Don’t worry, we’re not going to have a nuclear blast, I made them for a nuclear plant I was putting together before I started using arc reactors as a cleaner energy source.  They’re also used on my satellites.”

“Good,” Ichigo said with a smirk and turned away, speaking as he swung down.  _Please work and don’t embarrassment in front of Tony-kun._  He paused for a second.  Why was he worried about being embarrassed in front of Tony?  “ _Getsuga_ _tenshou_!” he said softly, and the blast arced from his sword outward just as it should, rattling the entire building with the force.  He turned back to see five stunned faces.

“Now, that’s _bankai_.  Then, I can do that with my mask,” he said, reaching up and summoning the Vizard mask over his face.  There was a second he grinned.  Yes, that worked still!  So far, so good, he thought to himself.  All of his powers seemed to have transferred in a similar form.

“This is what taps the power of my hollow,” he said in a strange wavering voice behind the mask.  He turned and repeated the _getsuga_ _tenshou_ , only this time, the blast proof glass cracked up the middle when the black and red energy shot out toward it.

Ichigo turned back and dismissed the mask.  “Sorry about that, I didn’t think it would crack it.”  He was glad it worked, but he was going to have to be extremely careful with both versions of the _getsuga_.  They were highly volatile in this world.

Tony was staring at the monitor.  “That’s…that’s impossible.  I designed that glass.  It will survive being hit by meteorites in space.  And you cracked it.”

Ichigo nodded.  “Yeah, nothing compared to a _cero_ of some of the enemies I’ve fought,” he said with a shrug.  Those things make a nuclear bomb look nice.  Anyway, you wanted to see my speed too?” he said, looking at the other four dumbfounded faces. 

Sure, he was showing off.  He couldn’t help it.  He was enjoying it.  Granted, he wasn’t giving them Shiro yet.  Something told him that there was more to Shiro’s abilities than the Vizard mask now.  He would test that later, when he had to.  Honestly, he didn’t want to release the full ability of the hollow without being sure he was in complete control. 

Tony nodded.  “Yeah, just a minute, I have to recalibrate.  The power you’re emitting is almost frying the circuits…” he muttered, fingers flying over the keyboards. He moved down, pushing Steve away where he was standing.  “Move it, spangles,” Tony muttered, trying to get the system back in hand.  “If I don’t fix this the whole system will overload because of his innate power.”

“Yeah, sorry about that, I’m really bad at controlling my release of _reiatsu_.  Everyone says I leak _reiatsu_ everywhere, but I can’t quite get a handle on it.  I never seem to run out, you know, so I guess I have a lot.  That portal, whatever it did, was the only thing that’s ever took all of it,” Ichigo said with a shrug as he swung the thin black blade in arcs.  “I mean, obviously, what I have now isn’t the same.  Nothing feels the same…” he muttered.

Tony finally returned to the first area.  “Okay, I think I fixed it.  Now, speed.  Can you do that flash whatever it was?”

Ichigo nodded, flashing across the room and back.  “More or was that enough?”

Tony looked up.  “Um, I didn’t record movement.”

“Um, okay, too fast, how about I just flash in a circle up and back for a few minutes and see if you can catch it?” he asked, looking at him.

“Sure,” Tony said, not believing what he was seeing.

Ichigo nodded, flash stepping up to the ceiling, then across and back down to his position.  To the others, it looked like there were four or five of him at once until they all seemed to fade out and he was standing where he started.  “How was that?”

Tony nodded, fiddling with the recordings.  “That…I can’t even calculate that.”

“That’s impossible,” Natasha breathed.  “You…you move so fast you appear to exist in multiple points at the same time.”

Ichigo nodded.  “I do.  Nice tactical advantage in a fight.”

Tony looked at him and shook his head.  “There’s so much data that it will take hours to compile even with my system.  I’m going to have to invent new programs to compile this…”

Ichigo nodded.  “Hey, Tony, don’t worry.  I’m not really interested in the readings,” he said with a grin.  He had the answers he needed.  He knew, for the most part, what powers had come with him across the universes. 

“Now, you wanted to do some medical tests too?” he said looking at Tony.

“Yeah, Bruce?” Tony said turning to Bruce with a blank look.

“Yeah, shall we go up to my lab then?” Bruce said with a grin at Ichigo.

Tony was standing at the console still as Ichigo came up and appeared to be staying.  Ichigo reached out and put a hand on his arm. 

“You don’t get to stay here, you’re the host,” Ichigo said with a grin.  He didn’t want Tony to leave again.  For some reason, Ichigo felt like he had to keep watch over him.  It was an instinct, almost to the level of Shiro’s instincts.  He didn’t understand it.

Tony looked up at him and nodded.  “You…okay, I can come.  Not really my area, but…” Tony said, turning.

Ichigo smirked.  “Of course, you have to come, Tony.”

Natasha lagged behind with Clint as the others went to the lab and stopped him.  He turned to her.  “What’s up?” he asked, confused by her action.

“Did you notice what he did?” she asked, watching as they got in the elevator.

“He did a lot of amazing shit,” Clint said.  “He wasn’t exaggerating as much as I was hoping he was.”

“No, he called Tony by his first name,” she said with a frown.

Clint shook his head.  “So?” he asked.

“You don’t understand Japanese people and names.  You notice he called us by our last names?” she asked and Clint nodded.  “That’s pretty normal with people you know on a one on one basis.  I noticed he was using Tony’s first name right off.  First names are intimate things, and even friends sometimes don’t use them, instead putting ‘san’, ‘chan’ or even ‘kun’ at the end of the surname.  If he was using everyone’s first name, it wouldn’t mean anything, but he’s using only Tony’s first name.”

Clint nodded.  “So…what does that mean?”

Natasha shook her head.  “I have no idea.  For someone who seems to use surnames as he does, it is really odd for him to start calling one person by their given name.”

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Tony was finding it all a bit odd, actually.  It seemed that this Ichigo was gravitating toward him more than anyone else.  He assumed it would be natural; after all, he had been kind and understanding to him rather than suspicious.  However, Ichigo’s powers were scary.  Now he was extremely glad that Fury had agreed with him on keeping him out of a cell and showing him some kindness.  He had this strange need to make sure no one got their hands on him.  They stepped out on Bruce’s floor and headed into his research med-lab. 

Bruce smiled and looked at Ichigo.  “Okay, if you’ll hop up on here, Kurosaki,” Bruce said with a smile and patted the exam table.  “If you’ll lie back, I’m going to do a blood and tissue sample.”

Ichigo nodded.  “No problem, Banner- _sensei_ , my pop’s a doctor.  Done this a few times,” he said, rolling up the sleeve of his kusodo.

Bruce stared.  “So that is actually a part of your body?” he said, touching the black marks on his arm.

“Yeah, happened with Soul Society restored my power.  Changed everything, have no idea why,” he said with a shrug.

“You lost your power?” Tony asked from his position leaning against the counter next to them. Steve was standing next to him as well, but hadn’t spoken.

Ichigo nodded as Bruce did a blood draw.  “Yeah, there was this fight, and to stop the guy, I had to use what was a final _getsuga_ sort of thing, _mungetsu_.  Sort of a one shot thing, you know?  Took everything I had.  Ended up stopping the bastard from destroying all three worlds in the end.  Soul Society figured out how to give it back.  It was kind of good of them, I suppose,” he said with a smirk.  “Granted, it was in their own interest they did it.”

Tony nodded as Bruce patted Ichigo’s shoulder so he could sit up.  Ichigo held the pad onto his inner arm where the blood had been drawn.  Steve narrowed his eyes and spoke up finally.

“You seem to have an awful lot of power for someone so young, Ichigo,” he said softly.

“You haven’t earned the right to use my given name,” he said nearly under his breath, not really wanting to make a big deal out of it, but kind of annoyed with Steve at the moment.

Steve blinked and glanced to Bruce who nodded quickly.  “I’m sorry, I didn’t know,” Steve stammered, slightly surprised at the fact.

Ichigo shook his head.  “No, I am getting used to the ways of people here, and name usage is different in English.  Less…complicated.  Japanese…I don’t often use first names.  It is traditional not to use them on a regular basis.”

Bruce spoke up behind him.  “It is considered rude in most Japanese societies to use someone’s given name, Steve, unless you know them well enough, and even then, it isn’t often allowed except by very close friends.”

Steve nodded, understanding a bit why he referred to the others by their last names now.  Why was he calling Tony by his first name, he wondered.  He watched quietly as Bruce placed some electrodes on him and did a few more scans.  Tony leaned against the counter beside him and watched quietly. 

Steve looked at him.  “Stark, I don’t understand this at all.  Why are we not doing something to contain him?  His powers are incredible, I don’t think I’ve seen anything like it before.”

Tony turned to him.  “I am,” he said, rolling his eyes.  “What do you think these tests are for?  You can’t contain or control what you can’t understand, Capsicle.  Tossing him in a cell wasn’t going to make him comfortable enough to talk, and it wasn’t going to get him here with all the advanced instruments I have and the ones I made for Bruce.  Why did you think I wanted him in the tower?”

“I…” Steve started and stopped.  How could he argue with that?  It wasn’t irresponsible at all, which was his entire basis of being against it.  He shook his head.  “I still don’t think we should have let him keep that sword,” he muttered under his breath.  Fury had given Steve strict instructions to make sure to keep an eye on what it could do and to make his priority acquiring it if anything went bad. 

“Ichigo?” Tony said suddenly before Bruce put him into the scanner.

“Hum?” he said, turning his head toward him.  Steve arched a brow at Bruce who shrugged.  So apparently, Tony had permission to use his given name for some reason.

“While you’re in there, can I run scans on your sword over here?” Tony said, walking up to where Zangetsu was lying on the counter opposite the scanner.

Ichigo nodded.  “Yeah, watch out, the blade is razor sharp, and seems able to cut anything here and not just affect spiritual beings, and don’t put your hands on the bare blade if you can help it.  I’m not sure what the results would be here, Tony,” he said as he gave Tony a small smile.  Bruce shoved the bed into the arc of the scanner as Tony picked up the blade.

“Damn, this thing’s heavy…” he said, struggling a little with the weight of it.  “A lot heavier than it looks…” he muttered, using both hands to take it over to an empty table.  Steve stayed beside Bruce and Ichigo as the scans were done. 

Tony began his scans first and then wondered if he would be able to get a metal scraping off the blade.  He leaned down and took a diamond cutter from the tray and filed a tiny sliver from the metal near the hilt.  He watched as the very material of the sword itself seemed to heal.  He blinked and started a metallurgical analysis of the metal.  A few minutes later, Bruce called him over.

Ichigo sat up and rolled down his sleeve on his kusodo.  “That all for me, doc?” he said with a grin.

“Yes, thank you, Kurosaki.  I’ll run the samples and everything, but it will take a while, of course,” he said with a smile.  “I haven’t had biologicals with such abnormal scans before.”

“Alright.  Now, what do you want to do now, Tony?” he said, ignoring Steve completely and looking at Tony.  Ichigo saw the tension that spread across Tony’s shoulders when he stood close to Steve and he wanted to know exactly why it happened.  He thought that if he could get Tony to focus on him, he’d relax a bit more.

Tony shook his head.  “I took a metal sample and did scans on the sword, and I’m running the analysis now, but like all the other tests, it is so complicated that it will take a while to get any results back.  So…”

Ichigo grinned.  “How about I show you some sword skills, then?  Do you know how to use one?” he asked Tony.

Tony shook his head.  “Um, no, I don’t know if I could do that, I’m not really built for fighting,” Tony said with a smirk.  He had some training in fighting, but nothing like this.

“Nonsense.  My friend Rukia isn’t even five foot tall and she can take out men twice her size.  She’s annoying but good at what she does,” he said with a smirk.  “Come on, surely you have a practice room?  It’s good to work off some anxiety with a good sparring match.”

Tony nodded.  “Sure, come on.  Steve, you going to come watch?”

Steve nodded, having had every intention to go even without the invitation.  “Yeah, I’ll watch.  I’m not familiar with swordplay,” he said, following carefully as Ichigo picked up Zangetsu and followed Tony. 

A few minutes later they reached a training room with an assortment of practice weapons.  Ichigo went over and picked up a solid feeling pair of practice katana and put Zangetsu in the stand.  He handed one of the practice swords to Tony.

Ichigo nodded.  “Do you know how to take a stance?” he asked him.

Tony shook his head, having learned a few things, but not sword stances, watching Ichigo and trying to imitate how he’d stood earlier.  Ichigo frowned.  “No, no, here,” he said, moving behind him and adjusting his arms into a better stance.  He stepped back and looked at his feet.  “Here, this,” he muttered, kicking his right leg out for a wider stance.  “There, that’s better,” he said, stepping back.

Tony nodded but his heart was racing.  What the hell was happening to him?  He had no idea, but he did as Ichigo showed him.  He was doing pretty well, making the moves where he told him.  Ichigo smirked, telling him he was doing well for someone with no training in sword arts; of course, it wasn’t like he had training either.  He was faking it well, he thought to himself, trying to pull off some of the more “standard” stances people trained in fighting like Byakuya and Urahara were able to do.  Ichigo was rather patient, only once getting irritated with him.  For that, Tony got a sound swat on the ass with the practice sword when his mind wandered to Steve standing on the other side of the training room watching.  Tony jumped and glared at Ichigo.

Ichigo snickered.  “You have to pay attention to what you’re doing.  A real sword and you’ll cut a finger off if you get distracted like that.”

Tony felt heat crawl across his cheeks and nodded.  Ichigo smiled.  “That’s enough, though.  It takes a while to get down everything.  I’m impressed, though, you’re stronger than you look, and you learn fast.”

Tony nodded, putting the sword back up as Ichigo replaced his own.  “You saw my suit, want to see my workshop?” he asked.  “I do a lot of metalworking.”

Ichigo nodded.  “Sure, I’ve shown off for you, I guess you should get a turn, now, huh?” Ichigo said with a smirk.  There was somehow an easy confidence that they should remain in close proximity to each other.

“I have plenty things to show off and it is my favorite thing to do,” Tony said and turned to leave.  As he started to leave, though, Steve reached out and grabbed him by the arm to stop him.  Tony turned to him and frowned.

“Um, Cap?  What?” he asked.

“Stark, I see that you are right on some of these things, but I have to say I don’t think taking him to your workshop is a good idea.  There are too many SHIELD secrets and technological advancements down there.  There’s no way the director would approve of you doing that,” Steve said, eyes narrowed at him.

Ichigo turned and saw the immediate reaction Tony had.  His eyes, that’s where it was, Ichigo realized.  The sudden and almost invisible flash of absolute panic that crossed Tony’s face was unmistakable.  Ichigo had no idea what caused it, and perhaps if he wasn’t in _bankai_ , he wouldn’t have noticed it at all, and he most certainly wouldn’t have found himself yanking the other man’s hand away and pulling Tony gently away from him.

Tony was shocked into silence and Steve was just staring, still not believing the incredible speed with which Ichigo moved and having no idea why he would intercede between him and Tony.  Steve, of course, had no intention of hurting Tony, he had only put a hand on him to stop him from leaving the room just yet.  Ichigo looked at him with a deep scowl across his brows.  “I don’t think that’s fair.  You know I’ve already seen a lot of SHIELD, and I think Tony should decide for himself.  I’ve been forthcoming and I’m not here to steal your secrets.”

Ichigo let go of Tony’ hand and Tony stared for a minute before he walked purposefully out the door quickly.  Ichigo ran a bit to catch up with him. Tony thought to tell him to stay there but he was still mid panic attack, to be honest and by the time got into the elevator, the adrenaline had taken over, and it had escalated to the irrational stage that he couldn’t come down from easily.  Vaguely he felt that he was moving and then he felt himself steered out of the elevator into the familiar sanctity of his workshop.  But how did he get here?

He looked up over his heaving breaths at Ichigo who was talking to him.  That’s right, Ichigo led him here.  How’d he know how to get here, he wondered…

“Tony?” Ichigo called.  He looked up.  “JARVIS, help me, what do I do?  What’s wrong?” he asked, starting to worry.

“Sir is having an anxiety attack.  It has been a common occurrence since his time in Afghanistan and increased after the attack on New York and the recent troubles with Hydra and Xtremis.  There is a medication bottle in the upper right drawer of the desk beside you,” the AI informed him.

Ichigo nodded, rummaging until he found the bottle and shook one of the pills out but didn’t see anything to drink.  He remembered, though, that Tony took something before without anything to drink.  Tony was staring wide eyed away and breathing rapidly.  Ichigo knelt in front of him.

“Tony, Tony,” he said.  “Hey, here,” he said, pushing the small pill between his lips.  He seemed to know what was happening and swallowed without a fuss.  Ichigo was so centered on what he was doing he didn’t hear the door open behind him.

Tony blinked after a few minutes. “Oh, oh, sorry,” he muttered, locking eyes on Ichigo’s.  “I…”

“Tony, shh, that was a bad one, and what I just gave you, if you don’t pass out I’m going to be surprised,” Ichigo said, glancing at the bottle on the desk.  Those weren’t mild anti-anxiety pills.  Those were high dose sedatives.

“Oh, in the desk, dammit JARVIS,” he muttered, his eyes fluttering.  “He always tries to get me to take…those…” he muttered, slumping to the side.  Ichigo caught him easily and stood with him, seeing a couch in the side of the room.  He laid him down on it and grabbed a throw and covered him up. He paused for a moment and brushed a hand over his sweaty forehead for a second. 

“Red sting of fate, huh, Ojiisan, I think you might be right,” he muttered and turned around, nearly running into Natasha who was standing behind him. She was leaning against the desk and watching him with her arms crossed.

Ichigo blinked.  “Well, you snuck up on me, that’s an accomplishment,” he said, shaking his head.  His heart was still beating rapidly, and considering that this form was incredibly accelerated, it felt like a nonstop fluttering in his chest.

“What did you mean?  Red string of fate?” she said, watching him carefully.

“What Zangetsu said.  He said it was the red string of fate that brought me here,” he said with a sigh, walking past her to sit down in the desk chair.  He picked up the pill bottle and put it back where he’d found it.

“JARVIS told me he had another bad attack,” she explained as she turned to face him again.  “I usually come help him.  He doesn’t let most people know about it.”

“It?” Ichigo asked, looking at her.

“He’s suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder since he was in Afghanistan and tortured and had that thing put in his chest.  He was doing better, but during the fight to save New York, the government aimed a nuclear bomb at New York.  Tony flew it into a portal into space, and barely made it back.  Then there have been other problems.  Tony’s not like me, or Clint, or even Steve.  He’s not military.  He’s a man, a smart man, but a man nonetheless,” she said softly.  “And for some reason, no one can trigger him like Steve.  I’m still not sure what the whole issue is there.  I just know that if Steve gets too aggressive he shuts down, or at worse, ends up having a panic attack.  He won’t let me tell Steve or anyone else, though. I found out by accident.”

Ichigo nodded.  “He grabbed him, told him I wasn’t allowed in here, I saw it, split second, pure terror crossed his face.”

Natasha nodded. “I’ve seen it, too.  It isn’t anything that Steve’s done, though.  They’ve barely been around each other.  It didn’t happen before when they worked together, but this time, when we assembled the Avengers for these Hydra raids, Tony has been different.  I’m not sure what changed.  It was someone else.  I just have never been able to figure out who it is that Steve reminds Tony of so much that it sends him into such a severe panic.”

Ichigo nodded.  “Yeah,” he said slowly.  “I’ll stay here with him.  I’ll ask JARVIS to get me online again,” he said, nodding at the computer beside him.  “I’m still figuring out about this place.”

Natasha nodded.  “Alright, tell JARVIS if you need anything.”

Ichigo nodded and smiled as JARVIS pulled up what he was looking for before he could even ask.  Natasha headed out the door and paused to watch.  She didn’t miss the fact that Ichigo glanced over at Tony every few moments. She frowned and headed back to the common area to find Steve sitting in the dining room again with a frown across his face.  He looked up when Natasha came in.

“I don’t trust the kid,” Steve said to her as she sat down.  “He could be a Hydra plant.”

She looked at Steve for a moment and then nodded.  “Well, I do.”

Steve blinked and stared at her for a long moment before he got up and left the common area.  He had to think on the whole thing, to be honest.  He trusted Natasha, and if Natasha didn’t think he was a threat, could he be wrong about the whole situation?  After he left, Clint sat down beside her and stared for a moment.

“He did something to gain your trust,” he commented, sipping his coffee.

“He did,” she said, smiling at Clint.  “He really did.”

Clint nodded slowly.  “He’s an enigma.  Did you see the shock on his face, though, when he was demonstrating the abilities, before he put that mask over his face?” he said softly.

Natasha nodded.  “He didn’t know if that energy blast was going to happen or not.  He was surprised that it worked.  I don’t think he’s lying, Clint, for that and a more reasons.  He’s trying his best.  And I really think he doesn’t want people to touch that sword because he’s afraid it will hurt one of us.  He doesn’t know what will happen, and he doesn’t want to see anyone hurt.”

“I think you’re right,” Clint said.  “But what’s up with him and Tony?”

“He said it was the red string of fate,” she said slowly.

Clint frowned.  “What’s that supposed to be?”

Natasha shook her head.  “This idea that there’s a string that connects people’s hearts.  It’s a soul mate myth.  He claims that he followed it and ended up here.”

“Maybe that’s what connects you and Bruce,” Clint mused.

Natasha frowned and rolled her eyes.  “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Clint.”

Clint stood up and grinned.  “Lullaby,” he said and headed off to the kitchen.


	3. A Darker Threat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ichigo finds out the cause of the problems Tony is having with Steve and is none to pleased. The rest of the Avengers start to get used to the new addition to the tower.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uploaded Revisions 5-22-15
> 
> Beta'd Emmagem803

Ichigo spent the rest of the afternoon using the computer to continue his research into the world he’d found himself in. He was fascinated by the fact that this was even possible.  He found many of the legends from his own world, and thanks to JARVIS, he had no problem accessing information in his native language.  He was quite thankful at this point that his school had an English curriculum from an early stage.  He wanted to leave and walk around, but he was definitely going to stick out in his shihakuso.  He frowned and looked around, but he didn’t think any of the clothes belonging to these people would fit him.  He leaned back and spun in the chair for a moment.  Considering the dosage of that medicine, he thought that Tony’d be out for another hour or two at least.  Food, though, would be good.  He didn’t really want to leave, though.

“JARVIS?” he queried looking up toward the ceiling.  It was odd talking to someone who wasn’t actually present.

“Yes, Mr. Kurosaki, may I be of assistance?” the smooth English accented voice answered.

“Ah, yes, I was wondering if I could get some clothes?  Like jeans and something?” he asked, still feeling strange having a talk with the ceiling.

“Of course, sir, please stand,” JARVIS commented.

Ichigo frowned and stood up and a series of blue beams seemed to scan him and then there was a beep.  “You’ll have a wardrobe delivered in the next two hours, sir.”

Ichigo arched an orange brow and sighed to wait on what he was going to do next.  He spun around in the chair again and thought over the whole situation.  After doing some research on his own and looking up the results that had come from some of the tests, he was intrigued.  There were some obvious differences in his chemical make-up, though he wasn’t sure what it meant.  He looked up when he heard a tap on the doorway and saw Bruce standing there with a tray.  He nodded to him and he came in with a smile.

“Banner- _sensei_ ,” Ichigo said with a smirk.

“I thought you might be down here still.  Natasha said that you’d given Tony some of the sedatives I’d prescribed him,” he said as he came in.  “He won’t talk to me about what he needs them for, so I let him keep his privacy.”

Ichigo nodded slowly, pulling his chair over.  “I was going to ask if you’d come to any conclusions from the tests you did earlier?” he said, looking over the other man.

“I did, and I’m not sure I understand most of it,” Bruce said, running a hand over his dark hair. “If I say something too technical, let me know, and I can explain.  We’ve encountered otherworldly creatures before, and those like Loki and Thor have denser structures.  So, Thor takes less damage because his cellular structure is denser and heavier.  You, it is like your cellular structure and base metabolic rate are accelerated.  Where Thor has denser one, you have a much lighter seeming structure, which makes you faster and less dense than you should be.  I’ve never seen anything like it, but I hadn’t seen anything like Thor or Loki’s make up either,” Bruce said, shaking his head.  “It means you should be more susceptible to injury, but instead, your body heals at such an accelerated rate, injuries that are not major are simply instantly regenerated.

“Your DNA is unidentifiable, to be honest, it makes no sense, so I would put you in a similar category as Thor and Loki because of that.  Going on what you described, that you were a spiritual being, incorporeal, and somehow obtained a corporeal form upon entering this world, that would explain the almost absence of identifiable compounds.  It is literally like the body you’re in less than a week old as far as what environmental contaminants show up in the tests I ran.  As a person is in our world, the current levels of smog, pollution, and other particulates are taken into the body.  Your body simply doesn’t have them for more than a week.  I really cannot tell what your age is other than visually,” Bruce said with a frown. 

Ichigo nodded, slowly absorbing everything that Bruce was saying. Bruce continued, still looking confused by all the information he had gathered. “And the change with the mask I can’t explain at all.  We’ve seen gifted and powered people, and the only thing I can come up with is that you were somehow converted into a powered structure when you crossed worlds.  Whatever you were before didn’t translate into our world, so whatever did this, converted your essence into the closest thing to what you were, which is a powered person.”

Ichigo put down the napkin and nodded.  “Makes sense, kind of what I had figured in my head.  I don’t sense spiritual energies, and I don’t see spirits, which is weird for me because I’ve done seen spirits since I was a child.  I guess if you want, you can keep trying to explain it, but I don’t think it’s necessary.  I have an idea why I’m here, but I’m not sure.”

Bruce paused and looked at him.  “So what is it you think you’re here for?”

Ichigo smirked, looking up at him. “I think I’ll let things play out as they’re supposed to,” he said with a sigh.  “I was brought here by the red string of fate.  I’ll go where it leads.”

Bruce frowned briefly and nodded.  “You’re powers are quite frankly frightening. They’ll try and control you,” he said, trying not to look at him.

“Oh yes, I’ve seen what they’ve tried to do to your beast side.  And they will try.  However, they will not succeed.  So I’ll stay here, and I’ll go where my fate leads me.”  Ichigo nodded, to himself and to Bruce.  “I don’t wish harm to anyone. I am a loyal person, Banner- _sensei._   I am always going to defend my friends and that can’t change.”

Bruce glanced to the back where Tony still slept.  “I’ll go finish the tests, if you need me, tell JARVIS,” Bruce said, leaving to the lift again.  He was confused.  He wanted to distrust him.  However, it wasn’t going to be easy.  Bruce rarely trusted anyone, let along some strange man that fell out of the sky.  However, there was a simple truth to his words that Bruce couldn’t deny.

Ichigo watched him go and didn’t miss the small tells Bruce gave when talking.  Bruce didn’t fully trust Tony, and neither did the _taichou_ , Rogers.  He was beginning to have his doubts about who he could trust here.  Only the female spy seemed to be completely open and honest with him, which was strange.  A spy was the most honest of the group.  She had at least been open with her distrust from the beginning.  The others seemed to want to lull him into a false sense of security.  He shook his head and spun again, noticing that the motion did not make him the slightest bit dizzy.  Interesting.

Curiously enough, Ichigo wasn’t all that bothered by being separated from the others in Soul Society.  There were so many reasons that he wasn’t bothered. He missed his sisters and his dad, of course, but he wasn’t really missing those from Soul Society.  He was grateful to them for giving him his power back, but it still didn’t take away the fact that they’d mistrusted him and watched him.  He was still dealing with a lot of things from everything that happened.  Then, to be pulled back into the fray so quickly…it had been a bit much.  He spun the chair again.  Though, he would like to be able to communicate and let his family know that he was okay.  For all they knew, he’d perished.  He supposed that they should know he was okay.  It wasn’t like his father couldn’t take care of them.

He pulled up the test results that Bruce had gotten back.  It was an interesting comparison to those others, the Asgardians.  He still was in wonder that there were beings that were literally the Norse gods.  He shook his head.  He still hadn’t had a chance to meet Thor.  He wasn’t sure how long had passed but JARVIS interrupted his musings.

“Sir, your clothing has arrived.  Shall I have a room prepared for you, or shall I just put it in Sir’s room?” JARVIS said. 

Without thinking, Ichigo sighed. “Yeah, Tony’s room is fine,” he said before standing to head to the elevator.  “I’ll go change, can you monitor Tony while I’m gone?” he said as he headed for the door.

“Of course,” JARVIS answered.  “His biosigns do not indicate consciousness immediately.”

“Thanks,” he responded, heading up to Tony’s bedroom. 

He entered and then stopped.  Did he just get asked by that AI if he wanted to stay in the same room with Tony?  And he just told him yes?  He ran a hand over his head.  He honestly couldn’t think of leaving the man alone, especially at night.  There was something desperately wrong and he wanted to know exactly what it was that weighed so heavily on Tony’s heart.  He shook his head and opened a closet on the left side of the room.  There were two others besides it.  He found nicely tailored clothes in his size.  He changed into a pair of jeans and a t-shirt with a pair of black boots.  That AI was more intelligent than some people he knew.  He headed out to go back to the workshop and nearly ran into the _taichou_ again _._

“Why are you in Tony’s room?” Steve asked, narrowing his eyes.  His tone was more concerned than anything, however.

Ichigo arched a brow at him and shook his head.  “JARVIS put my clothes in there; I wanted to change out of my _shihakuso_.  I usually only wear it when I’m fighting.”

“Why would JARVIS put your clothing in Tony’s room?” he asked.

Ichigo shrugged slightly.  He was a little worn out with all the questioning, to be honest.  “I don’t require much sleep, if you must know, so it is not necessary to give me an entire room when I only need a closet.” 

With that, Ichigo bowed slightly and walked away from him.  He was wanting to get back before Tony woke up.  He knew that coming out of sedatives made someone confused and it was disorientating at first.  He didn’t want him alone.  He entered the workshop just in time to hear Tony groan as he rolled right off the couch onto the floor.  Ichigo moved with his customary speed and quickly had him back up on the couch where he was blinking blearily at the ceiling.

“Wha…” he muttered thickly.  “What…”

“Hey, don’t force yourself, you just came out of that sedative I gave you,” Ichigo said with a smile as he sat him upright.

Tony rubbed his head.  “Oh, yeah, that’s right, what…what are you wearing?” he asked, realizing that Ichigo was in different clothes.

“Your AI got me a new wardrobe.  Do you like it?” he asked, smiling at Tony.

Tony, to his credit, blamed the slow reaction on the lethargy more than anything.  However, the sudden stomach turning flush that overtook him as he looked at the strange boy wearing fitted clothes was hard to blame on that.  Boy?  He was not a boy, not with a body like that, he thought before he swallowed.  What was he thinking, he just met the man, and his mind was headed to the gutter already.  He rarely felt this kind of reaction to men, but on occasion he had.  Of course, the last one had ended very badly.  However, this was one of the rare moments he have a reaction to someone like this, it would seem.

“Very nice, he did a good job,” he said with a yawn, mostly to cover the stare he was giving the tight fitting t-shirt.

Ichigo smiled.  “I hope you don’t mind, JARVIS put my clothes in your extra closet.  It’s not like I sleep that much as it is, and I didn’t want to take up room you might need for someone else,” he said with a shrug.

Tony’s heart couldn’t take much more.  Not that he wasn’t out of practice with the romance thing since he and Pepper split up.  He nodded and went to stand but found the ground to be unsteady.  Ichigo’s hands held him up almost immediately and they were stronger than he expected.  Ichigo easily exerted as much if not more strength unconsciously than Steve did.  Tony tried not to flush, but it happened anyway.  Luckily, it seemed Ichigo just thought it to be after effects of the sedative.

“So, is there anything you want to ask me?” Ichigo said as he pushed Tony to sit back down beside him on the sofa.  Tony’s leg lay up against his and he felt that same flush again at the closeness.  To be honest, Tony rarely let others this close to him.  Why was he letting this guy in his bubble?

Tony looked at him and smiled a bit.  “Um, yeah, I mean, you told us about your shinigami thing, but what’d you do as a person, or did you do regular things?”

“Oh, I had a human life, but lately I’d spent a lot more time away from it than in it.  Time is a weird thing when you cross the _Dangai_.  The _Dangai_ is this border between worlds, and if you enter at one spot, more time passes than it does on the outside.  That’s what I was figuring up while you slept, how old this version of me is, you know.  I’d never thought of it, but I’ve spent so much time out of my body that I really am a lot older than my human body appears.  Not that it matters, my human body will go on with Kon inside it,” he said with a sigh.

“Kon?” Tony asked, frowning.

“Kon is a soul that inhabits my body when I’m gone in soul form.  Keeps up the appearance that I’m there when I’m not really.  But, either way, I just was thinking about it, and my human self is eighteen later this year, but when I add onto my life the rest of what I’ve done, I’m probably closer to twenty in this form.  The tests you and Banner-sensei did were inconclusive, as though this body was literally just created.  Technically, I suppose it was just created.  I requested through JARVIS an Identification card, and I used my birthday and had my age listed as twenty.  I figured that it would be for the best,” he said with a nod toward Tony.

“Ha, you can’t drink!” Tony said with a smirk.

“Oh, that’s right, twenty one is your drinking age,” he said thoughtfully.  “Ah, that doesn’t matter, with the way this metabolism is functioning, it most likely won’t affect me.  Some interesting stuff, you know.  Normally in soul form I don’t really eat that often, but I’m hungry most the time now.  We’ll have to test out some of these capabilities as they transferred to this form.”

Tony nodded, reaching out and taking a glass of water from a tray DumE held out to him.  He sipped it gently.  “Yeah, that’s true, so what do you want to do?  Do you know why you came here?”

Ichigo smiled.  “I know some of it.  It is too early to explain it all.  Just that the red string of fate connects me and you, and that’s why I came here.”

“Red string of fate?” Tony asked, brow wrinkling.  He thought he remembered something about that mythos.  Granted, Thor was a myth too, and he was all too real as well.

“Yeah, I’ll…” Ichigo began but there was a buzzing sound.

“Sir, there is a call for you,” JARVIS announced.

“I don’t want to talk to anyone,” he said, rolling his eyes.  He was still groggy and he wanted just to rest for a little while at least.

“Sir, it is Mr. Stone, he indicates that it is business related and imperative that you answer,” came JARVIS again.

The reaction was immediate, and again, it was most likely only Ichigo’s enhanced senses that caught it.  The look that crossed Tony’s face was unmistakable.  The glass fell and Ichigo managed to snatch it before it fell to the floor.

“On speaker,” Tony answered tightly.

“Tony, Tony, how are you?” came a rough voice over the speaker. 

“Fine, Tiberius, what do you want?” Tony said with that same tightness in his voice.

There was a tut tut sound on the other end of the line.  Ichigo’s brown creased.  Pieces were falling together.  “Now, Tony, is that any way to talk to me?  I’ve yet to get your answer on the proposition I sent you.”

“Tiberius, I’m not that interested in your proposition.  Now, I’ll gladly have the paperwork drawn up for the merger of the divisions of our companies, but that’s all I’m willing to do for you,” Tony said, his voice just subtly shaking.  “I’m not making personal addendums to business contracts, Tiberius, you can forget it.”

“Tony, you’re no fun.  Are you alone?” he said, and Ichigo ground his teeth for a moment.

“What does it matter, Tiberius?  You’ve got my answer,” Tony said with a sigh and glancing at Ichigo.  Ichigo could see a storm of emotion reflected in Tony’s eyes that he did not like in the slightest.

“I’m just wondering how freely we can talk,” came the response.

“I’m in my workshop, Tiberius, what do you think?  Now, I have actual work to do…” he started.

“Oh, so you are alone.  So tell me, do you miss me?” came his voice and Ichigo caught the subtle change.  There was a softer sound to it, as though talking to someone very close.

“No, I don’t, now if you’ll be on your way…” Tony began, starting to stand.

“Tony, I never gave up, you know, you’re still mine, no matter how many sluts you sleep with to try and make yourself feel better,” he said with a light tone to his voice as though talking about the rain.  Ichigo felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up.  How disgusting was this man…

Tony swallowed.  “I’m not yours, and I’m not agreeing to that stupid proposition you sent with the contract.  Stop this now, those days are over, Tiberius.  I’ve moved on, you should too.”

“You can’t, Tony, because I won’t let you.  When have you ever known me to let go of what belongs to me?” Tiberius said slowly, but Ichigo could hear the slight domination creeping into his tone.  Those weren’t questions, they were becoming demands.

Tony paled a bit and Ichigo’s hands clenched.  “Look, you’ve let go already; it has been years since we’ve seen each other.  That’s not going to change.”

“That’s what you think, Tony, sweetheart.”  Ichigo felt his fingernails dig into his palm.

The line went dead and Tony chewed on his lip thoughtfully.  Ichigo looked at him for a moment.  “He’s the reason you have trouble with Steve, isn’t he?”

Tony looked up at him, eyes slightly wide.  “What makes you say that?”

“I may be from another world, but I recognize some of these signs.  What did he do to you?” he said sternly, all traces of mirth wiped from his face.  He wasn’t demanding like Stone had been, but he was giving a tone that brokered no lies.

Tony started to ignore him but instead sighed.  “When I as a kid, I graduated MIT at seventeen, well, while I was there, I knew Tiberius, and he and I were friends, then more.” 

“That doesn’t sound like a truly happy ‘more’,” Ichigo said.  “He made it more, and you were young, and you didn’t know what to do about it.”

Tony shrugged.  “I guess you read about me.  Women and alcohol and…I just needed to get as far away from what he was to me.  He was too rough, and made me feel so small and weak.  I didn’t know what to do when he did those things, and I couldn’t say no because…well, I wasn’t…”

“I think I follow.  He was abusive and forced you into having sex with him, didn’t he?” Ichigo said with a sad smile.

Tony looked up and shook his head.  “No, not really.  I just was a pushover, you know.  I just let him do those things, and it wasn’t his fault, I never said no to him.”

Ichigo nodded but he knew that it was deeper than that.  The anxiety was coming from somewhere.  He must have looked or acted like Steve to elicit that sort of reaction from Tony.  Now, what was this proposition?

“And now?”

Tony sighed and shook his head.  “His company, he wanted to work with Stark Industries on a few things, and he slipped this stupid addendum saying that he wouldn’t sign it unless I went to dinner with him to discuss things further.  I refused.  The rest of the company doesn’t know our…history, and they just think it's Stone being…our companies have been working together on rebuilding New York since the invasion.  I tried to ignore how he made me feel at first, but it just got so hard to do so.  And now, he’s trying to control the situation.”

“But he is trying to control you, isn’t he?” Ichigo said with a soft smile.

Tony looked up and sighed.  “I don’t know.”

Tony really didn’t know for sure.  All he knew was when Stone’s company came into contact with Stark Industries after the event.  Things were still a mess three years later, no matter how many companies that Tony had networked and contracted with.  The damage had been severe, and areas like Hell’s Kitchen were still in extremely bad shape.  At first, he thought he could handle contacting Stone.  Instead, it brought back memories that he had hoped would never surface again.  His eyes grew distant as he fell into the memory…

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

“Tony, come on, you can’t stay in here all day?” came the voice of Tony’s dorm mate, Jared Lispeski.  Jared was a mechanical engineer like Tony, but unlike Tony, Jared was already twenty years old.  Tony had just turned fifteen this year.

“Jare, I don’t want to go out and party.  It is hard enough being younger than almost everyone in our grade level as it is.  I don’t want to go out to a gathering that I can’t drink at and be singled out one again,” he muttered as he sat on the bed with his textbook propped on his knees.  “Besides, if my father knew I was out at a party, he’d kill me.”

Jared smiled.  “Come on, Tones.  Just once?  For me?  This is a good one…plenty of women, and drinks even for fifteen year old genius brats like you…”

Tony had a hard time telling Jared no, to be honest.  Tony had a hard time telling most people no.  His father would have been embarrassed to know this fact, because he was supposed to be standing up for himself and being his own man, as Howard Stark put it.  He closed the book and shook his head. 

“Fine, but this is the last time.  When, not if, when I have a terrible time, I’m not going to another one of these, got it?” he said, standing and pulling on his tennis shoes.

“No problem, man, no problem, but its Friday night and you need some serious relaxing,” Jared said. 

They drove to the house, chatting about their classes and people in them as they went like usual.  Tony struggled with the whole making friends part because he was five to seven years younger than most his classmates.  Either way, he agreed to Jared’s plan.  Once there, he found himself staring at someone he hadn’t seen in a while, Tiberius Stone.  Stone pushed his black rimmed glasses up his nose and walked over toward where Jared and Tony had just come in.  He smirked at them and ran a hand through his dark brown hair, setting it in spikes on top of his head.

“Well, if it isn’t the brat child of Howard Stark, I heard you were here at MIT,” Stone said with a satisfied smirk.  “What would Daddy say if he knew you were partying it up?”

“Ty, wish I could say it was good to see you,” Tony muttered, looking away.

Jared looked between them.  “You know Ty, Tones?” he asked.

Stone smirked.  “Oh yes, Viastone and Stark Industries are competitors aren’t they, Tony?” he said with a smirk.

“Competitors makes it sound like you have anything compared to my father’s company,” he said, narrowing his dark eyes at the taller young man.

Tiberius smirked.  “Sure, Tony and I know each other.  Our fathers have clashed a few times.  Granted, I didn’t get accepted to MIT at fourteen like this little prodigy.  I just started here on my MBA, so when I graduate I can take over Viastone.  What do you say to that, Tony?”

“Maybe your company might be successful instead of going bankrupt like it is right now,” Tony said, rolling his eyes.

Tiberius smirked at him.  “Come find me when you grow up, Tony.”

Tony growled under his breath and went about doing his best to ignore the fact that Tiberus kept watching him. He just wanted to leave the party, but Jared seemed to be having a great time and not wanting to leave.  He sulked in a corner and nursed a coke trying to avoid everyone.  It was almost two am when he woke with a start.

“You fell asleep, Stark,” Stone said, smiling at him where he’d indeed fallen asleep in a large bean bag chair.  “Your ride is too drunk to drive, why don’t you let me take you back to your dorm?”

Tony, if he hadn’t still been half asleep might have thought it was odd that Stone was offering him a ride.  Stone had always been dismissive of him, considering him a child compared to him.  Granted, Tony was only four years younger than Stone.  The nineteen year old had always considered it an affront that a boy four years younger than him was ahead of him in school.

“Whatever, I just want to sleep,” Tony muttered, getting to his feet unsteadily.

“You’re not used to being around pot smoke, are you, Tony?” Stone said as he steadied Tony.

“What?” he muttered, blinking rapidly then rubbing his eyes.  He felt so small compared to Stone.  Stone was already over six foot tall, and Tony had yet to hit his last growth spurt, leaving him at barely over five and a half feet tall.

Stone steered him toward the door and out into his sports car.  “They were smoking pot around you, that’s why you’re feeling weird, didn’t you smell it?” Stone said, getting in and buckling Tony’s belt, then his own.

“I smelled something, but I didn’t know what it was,” he muttered, rubbing his eyes again.

“You’re so naïve, Tony, so naïve, so sweet, so young…” Stone muttered.

Tony frowned and turned toward him, wondering just what the hell that meant.  “Ty, where are we going?  This isn’t my dorm…” he said, looking at the house they’d just pulled into.

“No, my house,” Stone said and got out of the car.

Tony wanted to argue but his head felt full of sand at the moment.  Stone opened the door and grabbed Tony by the hand and pulled him to stand.  He followed him, not really sure what to do at the moment.  Tony found himself inside Stone’s house and he suddenly wanted to be anywhere else.

“Take me home, Ty, please, I just want to go home.  I…” Tony said, trying to pull away from him.

“No, I brought you here for a reason, Tony,” Stone said, turning him to face him.  “You’re gonna be with me from now on, got it?”

Tony shook his head slowly.  “I don’t understand.”

“You’re mine, now, got it?  I made the decision tonight.  I want you and I get whatever I want.  And you’re going to be a good boy about it, Tony, you know why?” he asked, softly.

Tony shook his head slowly, his eyes growing wide.  “If you don’t do what I say, your father is going to find out about your little party adventure tonight.  And you’re going to wish that you’d taken my offer.  You do what I say, you got no worries, baby.  None at all.  No more bullying, no more teachers giving you shit, you’ll be in good hands, got it?” he said, pulling Tony closer to him.

Tony stared at him but didn’t stop him when held his face and began to kiss him on his face, then his neck, where he began to leave painful marks on the younger boy.  “They’ll know you’re mine,” he muttered before biting into his neck hard enough to make Tony yelp out loud.

“Please…don’t…” Tony begged as Stone pushed him down onto the sofa and began to undress him.

He guessed he had told him no.  It didn’t matter, though.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

“Tony?” Ichigo said, and Tony blinked and looked back at him.

“Fine, just remembering things,” he said quietly.

The door opened and Ichigo looked up to see a pretty strawberry haired woman come storming into the room with a clipboard.

“Tony Stark, I need these signatures before the end of business tomorrow…or there…” she paused and saw that Tony was sitting on his sofa beside someone she didn’t know.

“You have company.  In the workshop,” she said slowly, eyes narrowing at Ichigo.

Tony smiled and stood up.  “Um, yeah, Pepper Potts, my CEO for Stark Industries, um, this is Ichigo Kurosaki, um…he’s…”  How was he going to explain this to her without scaring the crap out of her?

“I’m a trade student from Japan, came here to Intern with Tony,” he said, standing and offering a hand to her.  “I received top of my class in business, and decided that Tony was the best person to further my ambitions.”  Ichigo wasn’t sure what he should say, but he didn’t know a whole lot of this woman personally other than what he’d read on her as Tony’s sometimes girlfriend, sometimes assistant.

Pepper narrowed her eyes at him.  She knew an obvious lie when she heard one.  However, she was not in the mood to argue with Tony over it.  If Tony trusted him enough to allow him here, she couldn’t have much issue with him about it.  “Yes, very well, now Tony?” she said, handing him the files.

“And about Director Stone?” she asked, arching a brow.  “My phone has been ringing off the hook because the board wants this partnership with his company.  I don’t think going to a dinner appointment with the man is that much of a problem.  He even said if I could come along it wouldn’t be a problem.  So we have reservations at seven.  Black tie.  I’ll come up for you at six thirty.”  She smiled, nodded and turned on her heel and left. 

Tony sighed.  “Well, at least she’s coming with me, then it won’t be as bad,” Tony muttered.

“Do you think he would try anything?” Ichigo asked, wary of this individual even though he didn’t know him. 

Tony shook his head.  “No, I doubt it.  He might say things to try and make me uncomfortable, but I doubt he’d do anything in front of someone like Pepper.  Besides, it’s a business meeting,” he said, standing. 

Ichigo stood beside him and Tony arched a brow.  “You got a new wardrobe, how about we go out for a bit?  You’ve seen New York from above, how about visiting a few local colorful spots,” he said with a smirk.  “I’ve got a couple hours before I have to be ready for the meeting.”

Ichigo smiled and nodded.  “Of course, come on then,” he said, heading toward the elevator and waiting for Tony.  Tony smirked and followed him.    “First, I’m starving and there’s schwarma…” Tony said as they stepped out onto the street.

The afternoon went well, and though Tony was spotted by some photographers and paparazzi, he didn’t seem too bothered by it.  He found that Ichigo’s company was very different from most people.  Everyone else seemed to have an agenda with Tony Stark.  Ichigo had no interest in his money, his business, or even his Iron Man suit.  Not one question or discussion came about the entire afternoon that had to do with those things.  For once, Tony didn’t feel defined by being “Tony Stark” and “Iron Man”.  Perhaps it had something to do with Ichigo being far more powerful than they could really comprehend, and perhaps it had to do with him having a different set of priorities.  Tony honestly just wished he knew more about Ichigo’s intentions.

It was almost six when they made it to Central Park and Ichigo stopped and grabbed ice cream cones.  Tony smirked.  Apparently, while he was unconscious, JARVIS had provided him with a card and money.  He came back and handed one to Tony. 

“The city is amazing, and I’ve only seen a small piece of it,” Ichigo said, looking around at the place.

“There’s a lot to New York,” Tony said with a smile.  “To think, we went for schwarma and ice cream, and you’re this impressed.  If only all my dates were that easy to show off for,” he said before realizing what he said.  He just referred to it as a date.  A blush rose to his cheeks and he looked away eating the ice cream without looking at Ichigo.

“I suppose I’m the type of person more interested in people and who they are,” Ichigo said, not seeming to have caught Tony’s slip.  “I’m more inclined to judge a person based on their hearts than their deeds.  Those that appear good can be rotten inside, and those that appear the most evil may hide a heart of gold.”

“You sound like a fortune cookie,” Tony said, turning back with a half smirk.

Ichigo shook his head.  “Guess it’s an Asian thing.  Though you do know fortune cookies didn’t come from Asia.”

Tony nodded.  “I did know that,” he said, dropping the cone wrapper into the waste bin as a car pulled up on the road.  He sighed.  “Come on then, JARVIS sent Happy so I can get ready for this,” he muttered, heading toward the car with his head down.  Ichigo jogged a bit to catch up with him and then put a hand on his back.  Tony looked up.

“Hey, we’ll go exploring again tomorrow,” Ichigo said with a smile.

Tony nodded.  “That’d be cool, there are more places to see, of course,” he said, sitting down in the limo first as Ichigo climbed in behind him.

“Good evening, sirs,” Happy said from the front. 

“Hi, Happy,” Tony said dully.  “Head back to the Tower so I can get ready for this business meeting.”

“You got it, sir,” Happy responded and they headed back. 

Ichigo followed Tony up to his room and fell into one of the big chairs as he got ready.  A few minutes later, he came out tying his tie and Ichigo looked him over.

“Well, you clean up nicely,” Ichigo said with a smirk.  “You look better in the jeans and tank, though, with grease in your hair.”

Tony blinked and looked up, fastening the cufflinks and wondered just exactly what that was supposed to mean.  “Oh, well, I prefer that to this any day,” he said, running a hand over his hair in the mirror.  “Um, so while I’m gone, there’s plenty to do in the tower.  Go have some fun with the rest of the guys, watch a movie.”

Ichigo nodded.  “Might just do that.”  He did want to get on a better footing with the others, especially since it was looking more and more like he was going to be stuck in this universe for a good long time.

Tony smiled, and left.  Ichigo had a foreboding feeling in his gut.  He sighed and got up and asked JARVIS to direct him to the TV room.  He made his way there slowly, thinking along the way.  So far, he was doing okay with the female spy, and he thought Bruce was getting more on with him than before.  Steve was still suspicious, and Clint he wasn’t too sure of.  He had yet to meet Thor, but perhaps he would be there for this movie. He found his way to where he saw the other five residents all settling in for a movie on the sixty inch TV.  Natasha looked up and smiled at him.

“Hey, Kurosaki, want to join?  We’re about to watch a Bruce Willis movie called R.E.D.,” she said, leaning her head back.  “And Thor finally got back from visiting his girlfriend, Jane, so you can meet him now.”

“If I’m not imposing,” he said, seeing that neither Steve nor Bruce seemed that happy that he showed up there.

“Good day, new friend!” Thor bellowed, standing and reaching for Ichigo’s hand.  Ichigo took it, feeling the amazingly strong grip the Thunder God had.  “I am Thor, son of Odin!  The others tell me you are formidable in a fight from what they have seen and master of the sword!”

“Um, yeah, nice to meet you Thor,” he said, smiling at the slightly jovial nature of the man.  So this was a god?

Natasha smiled, and though Ichigo didn’t see it, gave the others a death glare that dared them to say otherwise, and said, “Oh, no, come sit down, the more the merrier,” she said.  Bruce and Steve seemed to relax a bit.

Ichigo nodded and sat down beside her and watched the movie with them, sharing in the popcorn and the scathing monologue he shared with Natasha about the lack of realistic combat in some sequences.  It had just ended when Ichigo heard the main elevator open and Pepper’s voice.

“Tony!  Come back here!” she called.  “I asked you what the problem was.”

Ichigo easily flipped backward over the back of the couch from the seated position he’d been in and got to the private elevator just as it closed, taking Tony up to his rooms, leaving an exasperated Pepper standing there staring at it.  It had a bright red light at the top indicating it wasn’t opening for her.

“What happened?” Ichigo asked with a scowl.

“I don’t know, I just give up.  He acts like going to this meeting was the worst thing possible, and I swear he found every way to make himself miserable.  We got the contract, but not without Tony be completely rude to Mr. Stone!” she said with a sigh.

Ichigo stared for a moment.  “Have you thought that perhaps there is more to this than you know?  And perhaps this meeting was much worse than you could imagine for him?  Really, does Tony act so rudely to anyone without reason?  Perhaps it was not Tony who was making himself miserable, perhaps something else was making him miserable,” he said.

Pepper stared at him open mouthed for a moment before Ichigo pushed the button on the elevator and stepped inside when it opened immediately.  He left behind a room full of disbelieving people because no one was allowed into the elevator when it was locked by Tony.  Not even Pepper.

Ichigo didn’t really think about it when he walked into the room and found that Tony was in the shower.  He went in immediately and heard the rapid breathing and knew that Tony was barely holding on to something.  Ichigo stepped into the bathroom and opened the glass door on the shower and Tony turned with a great deal of surprise and blinked at him.

“Ichigo, what, how…I locked…did JARVIS let you in?” he stammered, leaning against the tiles and trying to keep himself from falling apart completely.

Ichigo nodded and stepped into the water, still fully clothed and reached for Tony’s hand as the water sluiced over them both.  “Tell me,” he said quietly, blinking at him.

Tony had no idea what to think, but he found himself drawn in to the one person who seemed to care about him, and not what he was.  He was a stranger, yet he trusted him more than he trusted his closest friends.  It made no sense at all.  He took Ichigo’s hand and found himself clinging to him suddenly.  He hadn’t done something this strange in a long time, standing naked in a shower, clinging to a fully clothed man and about to have a nervous breakdown.

“It wasn’t so bad at first,” he said after a few minutes of breathing steadily.  “He was talking business, we went over the contract, but he made sure to have to move closer to me, and then when…when he was talking about the contract, he put his hand on m-my leg and I nearly yelled and Pepper got mad at me for being too rude with him.  When Pepper left…he said things…and I got up, knocking over the chair and told Pepper I was leaving.  She got the contract.  I didn’t want to stay and she…I  couldn’t tell her,” he said in a sudden rush, the only thing keeping him upright was the other man in the shower.

“It’s so stupid!  It didn’t bother me, not until…until Afghanistan and then…then with the invasion, the nightmares would come.  I was okay, I thought, then after the mess with Xtremis, and Peper and I split, I felt alone.  Then when we got back together to find this dumb stick of destiny, it was different.  I couldn’t tolerate things like before. This stuff with Stone’s company has been going on for the last three years, on and off, and I just hit a breaking point. Everything that Steve would say, and the way he would act, telling me what to do and I just…I remembered…and it was like I was looking at someone else…” Tony said, hands clutching at Ichigo’s sides rhythmically. 

Ichigo understood what had happened.  JARVIS had been very forthcoming with information on Tony, and at the time, he hadn’t thought about it, but now he understood.  JARVIS knew that Tony needed someone.  JARVIS, artificial intelligence, was far more knowledgeable of Tony than anyone else in the world.  JARVIS knew that Tony was falling apart at the seams and no one was noticing it.  JARVIS had given Ichigo everything he needed to help Tony and more.

Ichigo moved and slid down the tile of the shower and kneeled with Tony.  He put his hands on his shoulders and smiled at him kindly.  “Tony, look, look at me,” he said quietly.

Tony looked up, eyes wide and full of tears mixing with the water.  Ichigo nodded.  “You’re coming undone, you see that?  Let me help you, just be being here.  I know you’ll never ask, no matter what happens, but I’m offering and I want you to take my help.  Just someone to lean against when you need it?”

Tony had no idea why he felt like this.  He was falling to pieces.  Every day, the nightmares had been getting worse, and he was sleeping less.  He couldn’t talk to the others, and he couldn’t talk to Pepper.  They wouldn’t treat him the same if they knew about the things in his past.  He didn’t want to tell them about the terrifyingly realistic flashbacks he had almost nightly.  He didn’t trust anyone not to go to the media about these things.  He couldn’t find a therapist that he could trust.  Then, out of nowhere, this orange headed kid falls out of the sky, right into his lap almost.

Tony didn’t say anything, just nodded once, and rested his head against Ichigo’s shoulder.  Maybe he could trust him.  Maybe he was different.  He had to hope.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

“Tiberius, why is it that you covet things are beyond your reach?” asked the man across the desk from Tiberius Stone.

“I covet nothing beyond my reach, doctor,” he said with a smirk.

“Yet last night, you approached Anthony Stark and he turned you down again.  Why is it that you continue to pursue someone with no interest in you?” the doctor said, frowning at him with his blond brows meeting for a moment.

“I approached him to remind him that he belongs to me, doctor.  I didn’t ask him.”

“He belongs to you?” the doctor said, scratching down notes in front of him.  “Tiberius, what does that mean?”

“It means that I don’t covet what I can’t have.  I will have him again, as I once did, because I will not be denied what I own,” he said, smirking even wider.

“Tiberius, do you think that that is a proper way to approach a prospective lover?” the doctor asked, looking up at him from under hooded brows.

“Oh no, not at all.”

“Then why are you approaching Mr. Stark in this fashion?”

“He’s not a prospective lover, doctor, I own him, I have since the day I claimed him in college.  I’ve allowed him to wander about.  And now I’ll take him back, take him, tie him up, and beat him until he admits that he should have never left my side,” he said, standing and smiling at the psychologist.

“Tiberius, you understand that if you are threatening harm to someone else, I can’t keep that to myself?” the doctor said, looking up just in time to see the flash from the silencer before he fell forward onto the desk.

“Oh yes, I understand, doc.  I think I’m done with these sessions,” he said, and turned and left the office silently.


	4. Complications in Fate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Revisions: 6-8-15  
> Beta'd Emmagem803

Ichigo sat in the comfortable chair at the side of the room and watched as Tony slept.  He didn’t have anything else to do at this time of night, after all.  After the incident in the shower, Ichigo had stepped out and let Tony finish his shower and get himself dressed.  He didn’t know what to make of the whole thing and he knew that Tony didn’t either.  They were drawn to each other and neither one knew why.  No matter how hard either of them tried, they couldn’t break the tie that had drawn them together.  Ichigo wanted to help Tony stay safe from this Tiberius.  And Tony was letting down his guard around Ichigo, something he rarely did.

Ichigo sighed and realized something with sudden clarity.

He didn’t really care as much as he thought he should if he never went home.  Sure, he missed Karin and Yuzu and his father, but he knew they’d be fine without him.  The truth was he didn’t fit there and never really had.  He smiled to himself.  He supposed that was okay.  He had thought that becoming a Shinigami would fix that.  It didn’t, it made things even worse because he was a “substitute” Shinigami and not a real one.  They’d mistrusted him and spied on him and feared him, and all he ever wanted to do was help others and protect the ones he loved.  But the ones he loved, they didn’t need his protection anymore, now did they?  Karin had learned under Urahara, his father was shinigami, and Yuzu had them both to protect her if she needed it.  No, they didn’t need him like they used to anymore.

As for Soul Society, how could he honestly feel that beholden to them?  They’d abandoned Orihime, and they had let him run off into Hueco Mundo with no help. In fact he had been told not to go after her. Rukia and Renji had come, but even then, he wondered if they had alternative agendas.  After all, Rukia had hidden so much from him.  And even Urahara had his own plans and not knowing the truth had affected them all. Just the knowledge of the hogyuku could have saved so much pain and strife.  Knowing that _he_ wasn’t the reason for his mother’s death would have changed a lot of things.  Even his father had lied and kept so much from him.

Was it any wonder he was in the middle of a strange world with strange variations on his powers he was okay?  He’d figured out that he had similar powers, but he had no idea the extent to which he could use them.  Would he be exhausted by using _getsuga_ too many times?  Would he be able to have unlimited energy like he was used to having?  He smiled to himself and decided to see what his other bodily residents thought of everything.

The place was surprisingly without rain or water.  Ichigo paused and tilted his head, putting the world right side up and realized something strange.  His inner world, this supposed reflection of his soul and everything he was, looked curiously like New York from above.  He’d never thought about why his inner world had skyscrapers in it, granted that had changed a time or two, but this was the way it had come to him the first time, and the way it remained when he was at his peak powers.  It didn’t really look like Tokyo or any other big city he’d encountered.  So…if his inner world, where his souls could commune, why did it look like New York of this world?  Was this soul mate thing really true?  He couldn’t imagine…he was skeptical, but now, looking at it…how could he deny that it just might be true after all?

Shiro appeared in front of him.  “Hey king,” he said, smirking.  “What’s up?”

“I just wanted to know what you thought if I never was able to go back,” he said, looking at him seriously.  “It isn’t looking good.  I know it’s been three days, but I am really starting to wonder.  I just have a feeling, you know.”

Shiro shrugged at him.  “I don’t give two shits one way or the other, you know that King.”

Zangetsu stood on the flagpole and looked down on the pair of them.  “What is there to return to the old world for, Ichigo?”

Ichigo stared at him for a long time.  “I’m surprised you’d agree with not finding a way home.”

“Maybe we are home, Ichigo,” he said and disappeared.  “It certainly looks more like home,” Ichigo heard faintly from the distance.

Ichigo crossed his arms over his chest and then looked at Shiro.  Shiro was smirking at him.  He knew something.  “What do you know?” he asked, eyes narrowing and brow furrowing at his white twin.

“See, King, here’s the thing,” Shiro said.  “Some of this is my fault,” he said grinning widely at him.

Ichigo shook his head. “The hell do you mean?”

Shiro started to giggle.  “Well, hate to tell you this King, but I guess all of this is my fault…your fault, our fault, really.  I mean, I’m you and you’re me after all.”

Ichigo shook his head.  “I don’t understand.”

Shiro arched a brow.  “Well, you know, I guess I got tired of the world you were living in, King.  And I finally had enough.  See, what you don’t know is that I’m Zangetsu, not the old man.  The old man?  He’s your power too, but he’s not your zanpakutou, that’s me.  He’s the Quincy power you got from your momma.”

Ichigo frowned deeply at him.  “What are you talking about?”

“The reason I have no name is because you gave my name to someone else, King.  And more than anything, I want to protect you.  I told you this, when you accepted and gave up all your powers.  You want to protect others, I want to protect you.  So this time, I did what I had to do to protect you from them, before they separate us again,” Shiro said, his smile fading and looking very serious for the first time that Ichigo had ever seen him.  “I, or we, decided that we had to act, and there was only one thing to do.  Chase the red string of fate and see where it led us.”

“You chased the red string of fate?  What do you mean by that?  It was an arrancar that opened that portal to this world…not…you did it…” Ichigo said blinking at him.  “You opened the portal; somehow, you managed to do it.”

Shiro grinned at him.  “You’re smart for someone so dumb sometimes, King.  I did, we did, or really, you did.”

“I did?” Ichigo said, frowning.

“Think about, King,” Shiro said, stepping forward and poking Ichigo’s forehead.  “How the hell are a zanpakutou spirit and a collection of Quincy powers going to do anything you don’t want them to do?  I can’t leave your body, Ichigo.  Neither can the old man.  He’s a physical representation of your power.  Just like me.  We’re two parts of _your_ soul.”

Ichigo blinked.  “I did this.”

“You did this.”  Shiro leaned back and grinned.

“Wh-what the hell did I do?” he asked, looking at him wide eyed.

Shiro grinned.  “What did you do, Ichigo, what did you do?”

Ichigo gasped and sat up with a start in the darkness of the bedroom. 

“Are you well, Mr. Kurosaki?” JARVIS said in the darkness.

Ichigo swallowed thickly.  “Fine, JARVIS, fine.”

“Your heart rate is triple that of your normal rate, sir, and that is already twice that of human resting normal,” the AI said, almost sounding concerned.

“Just…just something personal,” Ichigo said, sighing.

“Very well, sir, please tell me if you need assistance,” the AI said without a break.

Ichigo sighed and stood up.  What did Shiro mean?  What the hell could that…could it be that he had done this?  How could he possibly have opened a _garganta_ or portal between what was obviously parallel universes or something?  He didn’t have that kind of power.  At least…he didn’t think he did.  And what was about that that Shiro was his Zanpakutou?  He was a hollow, so what did that do for his powers?

He sighed and found his way to the elevator.  He headed up to the top level where he took off into the night.  He had to clear his head.  Something about Shiro’s words unsettled him more than he wanted to believe they did.  He stopped on the top of the Statue of Liberty, and stared out across the ocean.  Far around the world, there was a country like the one he’d come from.  It wasn’t exactly the same, but it was closer to what he had come from than this.  For a moment, he contemplated going there.  Would it be better?  He’d shown his hand.  For some insane reason, he’d shown his powers.

But had he?

_They haven’t seen half of what you can do yet, King.  We gave them enough to scare them.  That’s all._

Ichigo grinned broadly.  Somehow, he felt it.  No, he hadn’t revealed his hand at all.  He’d given them enough to scare them and to make them realize that he was not to be trifled with. He’d let them know that despite the power he had he wouldn’t use it to hurt them, even though he could very well do just that if he wanted.  He knew that it would be one result or another.  They’d leave him alone, or they would try and take him out.  Either way, he was, at the heart of it, trying to make them show their hand, he realized.  Without knowing it entirely, most likely under the influence of his inner hollow, he’d been able to cover his true powers.  He heard a giggling in the back of his mind.

_Remember what we did to bat boy, King?  Remember that power.  Your mask has nothing on what we become when we fully merge, King.  This world, it changed our power, and now, it is fully controlled, as long as you don’t die.  We haven’t finished changing yet, King.  Just wait.  I don’t think they even have a clue.  Your power is great, King._

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Tony woke up with a start just before dawn.  He blinked and sat up, looking around in the darkness lit only by his reactor.  He thought that Ichigo had been in here when he’d gone to sleep the night before.  He rubbed his eyes and sat up.

“JARVIS, where did Ichigo go off to?” he asked as he slid out of bed.

“Mr. Kurosaki left the building around three am and has not returned yet, though sensors have been calibrated as you requested, and I have been able to track him successfully as he is the only object that is able to move with such speed at that size.  He has remained in New York,” JARVIS intoned quietly.  “He had a highly accelerated heart rate before he left.  I am unsure as to the cause.”

Tony frowned and got up to go to the console and pull up the readings.  He’d been cautious, of course.  Steve and Bruce had no idea, they believed him to be flippantly letting this new kid do whatever he wanted, but he wasn’t.  He was far from stupid, and he knew that he posed a great danger.  He was pretty sure that he was something far beyond what existed here.  He’d even managed to hack into SHIELD’s super-secret gifted archive to see who was out there with powers.  Not many came close to the power that Tony and the official Avengers had, but Ichigo was another story.

“JARVIS, is his heart rate normally over 100 bpm?” he asked, looking at the scans.

“Affirmative, Sir.  Since I’ve been monitoring him his heartrate has remained steadily between 130 and 170.  When he left the tower it had spiked to over 350.”

“That’s impossible.  How is his heart not exploding?” he asked, frowning.  “His initial heart rate when he was discovered was low, 45, then the next day here at the tower it was high but not that high at 70, and now his heart rate is steady at almost 130?” Tony said, glaring at the screen showing the variation.  “Show me the compiled theories?”

 A second passed.  “Mr. Kurosaki is still in the process of adjusting to this world.”

“So he could be more powerful than we realize,” Tony said, frowning.  “Have we determined what speed he moved with?” he asked, punching up the statistics and reading them as JARVIS spoke out loud.  Tony found it much easier to think when using JARVIS as a sounding board.

“The ability to project multiple images of himself is not unique, simply a byproduct of his incredible speed.  We tracked his speed around two hundred to three hundred miles per hour,” JARVIS said.

“Do we think he can go faster than that?” Tony asked, frowning at the data.  Of course, since Tony didn’t know, neither would JARVIS, but then Tony never really saw JARVIS as just a machine.

“Unsure, Sir. They are your calculations.  However, I must inform you that his cells are still in a state of flux.  It is barely discernable, however, the sensors you installed in here allowed me to detect the cellular flux,” JARVIS said almost as an afterthought.

“You mean he’s still changing…” Tony said, dawning on him how true that was as he brought up the reports. He was glad to have JARVIS even if he was just repeating the information that Tony had already discovered.

“It must be assumed, Sir,” JARVIS intoned. 

“We have never experienced this sort of thing before.  Ichigo’s body, if we go with his tale and the evidence, was newly created a few days ago, now four days.  We have no idea how long it took to form a physical body from an existence that was purely spiritual in nature.  We have no comparisons to make about this situation,” Tony muttered as JARVIS pulled up a timeline of events.

“Trying to figure me out?” came Ichigo’s voice from the window.

Tony spun around to see Ichigo standing casually against the frame, balancing perfectly on the ledge that could have been no more than an inch wide.  Tony swallowed hard and wasn’t sure what to tell him.  He felt strangely bad for doing this investigation when he wasn’t here.  It wasn’t like he couldn’t, but there was this thing in his head that didn’t want him to betray Ichigo’s trust.

“Tony, don’t act like I caught you in the act of something,” Ichigo said, dropping down to the floor easily.  “I’m completely unusual and you are worried for the safety of this world.  You should be, because to be honest, I don’t know what exactly I’m capable of,” he said, coming over and sitting on the bed and rubbing his head.  “A few days ago I was sitting on my bed, staring into space and wondering where my life was going.  Then I show up here.  I guess I got where I was going.”

Tony frowned.  “You talk like there’s no way back.”

Ichigo arched a brow at Tony and smiled.  “Be honest with yourself, and me, Tony.  Do you think there’s a chance I can get home?”

Tony opened his mouth to tell him of course there was, that there was something they could do.  “I don’t think so.  But we don’t have to give up yet.”

Ichigo smiled.  “I don’t either.  Just the fact that my spiritual form became a corporeal form tells me that.  If I got back to my world, would I take this body?  I doubt it.  Something tells me that this was a one way trip.  We can keep trying, I mean, if there is a way, that would be great, but I just want to be prepared for the possibility there isn’t one.”

Tony shook his head.  “Even so, we might be able to communicate…”

“I think if I could at least talk to my family it would be nice, Tony.  They’ll be alright without me,” Ichigo said, smiling sadly at him.  “I just need to suck it up and adjust to this world for the time being.  If a way to get back can be found, we’ll deal, if not, I’m stuck here.  Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.”

They were quiet for a long time and then he turned back to Tony.  “I thought about going to Japan.”

Tony blinked, surprised.  Of course he’d go to Japan.  That’s where he was from.  Why would he stay in New York?  Why stay in a country where he had never lived.  “Oh? Why didn’t you?”

“It isn’t my home, so why bother.  That’s not the Japan I come from.  There isn’t even a place named Karakura Town.  No, I’ll stay where I landed.  Makes sense, you know.  Fate brought me here, might as well embrace it,” Ichigo said, glancing down at his hands.

“I don’t believe in fate,” Tony said, crossing his arms over his chest and staring at Ichigo hard.

Ichigo paused, then looked at him and smiled.  “That’s okay, because fate doesn’t require you to believe in it for it to affect you.”

“You haven’t been truthful, have you?” Tony said, staring at him.

Ichigo tilted his head to the side and smiled.  “Would you, in my position, tell everything?”

Tony shook his head.  “No.”

“Then there’s the answer, Tony,” Ichigo said with a subtle glance to Tony from where he sat.

Tony nodded and headed to his bathroom to shower and change, leaving Ichigo to sit on the bed and think over what was going on around him.  He’d seriously thought of flash stepping all the way to Japan.  But what would it do for him?  He’d be a foreigner in his own country.  No, he didn’t want to do that.  Tony brought him here, and here he would stay.

_King…are we ever getting any action?_

Ichigo snorted and rolled his eyes at the echo in his head.  Just because they were connected with the red string of fate didn’t mean that Tony was going to just fall into his arms, even though he did, technically.  That didn’t count though.  No, he had to sort out a whole lot of things.  Tony was in a delicate position emotionally, and to be honest, Ichigo didn’t know the first thing about this romance and love thing.  He’d just assumed he’d never have a relationship and moved on.  He wanted nothing to do with it, and honestly had thought he was asexual or something.  He really didn’t find anyone interesting or arousing very often.  Sure Yoruichi running around naked embarrassed him, but he wasn’t used to seeing naked women.  He knew that Orihime had been pursuing him, but he just didn’t feel it.

This was different.  Tony made him very confused about what he was supposed to do. His heart seemed to flutter and all he wanted to do when he was sad was make it go away.  Was that affection?  Was that connection?  It was all so confusing.  When he’d held him in the shower, even though Tony was completely naked, it didn’t bother him.  The closeness was actually nice, though, where before being that close to someone in that situation would be uncomfortable for Ichigo.  He just felt like he wanted him to be happy.  He looked up as Tony came in, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt and still barefoot.  He was still drying his hair with a towel.

“Do you need the shower?” he asked Ichigo.

Ichigo smiled, “I suppose, I did flash around the city most the night,” he said and stood up, pulling off the t-shirt he was wearing as he went.  He paused and looked in the full length mirror.  “Damn, talk about a bit of a change, my abs weren’t this good even in spirt form,” he muttered staring at the incredibly defined eight squares of muscle on his abdomen.  He shook his head and went into the bathroom, leaving Tony alone for a bit.

Tony cleared his throat.  He had to admit, he was certainly blessed by whatever gave him that body.  It was perfect, and according to JARVIS, with less than two percent body fat on it.  Tony rarely saw that sort of sculpting on a body, except Steve, of course.  Steve was more muscular, though, where Ichigo’s body was built for speed.  He glanced over and saw Ichigo had left the sword on his bed.  Tony chewed his lip for a minute and glanced at the bathroom.  He could hear the shower running.  He said not to touch the blade at all if possible, and not to touch it for long if he had to touch it at all.  So what would happen in he put his hands on the blade, he wondered.  All the scans had come back with there being no danger.  To his computers, the sword was made of some sort of metal, but it couldn’t yet be identified.  That wasn’t unusual; when vibranium was found, it was a mystery as well.  There were no strange readings, no anomalies that he could find about the thing.  So, why was Ichigo so worried about someone touching it?

Tony reached out tentatively, traced his fingers down the hilt.  There was a bang from the bathroom, Ichigo dropping something in the shower no doubt, and Tony started.  He blinked, realizing his hand had shifted from the hilt onto the bare, black blade.  A few seconds passed and nothing happened.  He let out a long breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding and smiled.  Nothing.  So it wasn’t as dangerous as Ichigo thought.  Then the world began to spin and tilt crazily and he felt like he was falling.  He had no voice as he slammed against something hard.  He blinked, groaning and looked up.  He blinked rapidly and yelped as a face hovered over his own.  He scrambled backward, and then freaked out because he was sitting on the side of a skyscraper. 

“Calm, Tony-san,” came a voice from a nearby flagpole. Tony looked up to see a dark robed man standing on the tip of it easily and staring at him.

“Yeah, Tony-san, calm yer tits, man,” said another voice.

Tony turned around and stared openly at something he couldn’t believe.  It was Ichigo. But it wasn’t Ichigo.  He was exactly like Ichigo, right down to the hair and the sword, but he was white, and when he grinned, his tongue was blue…

“What…where am I?” he said, glancing around, and back at them.

“Dumb ass humans,” the white figure said, rolling his eyes and coming closer to Tony where he sat on the glass.  “King told you not to touch the blade.  Then what do you do?  Go and touch the blade.”

“Humans are curious creatures, Shiro.  It is not necessarily his fault.  Ichigo left us in easy reach,” the man on the pole said.  “Perhaps without realizing it, this was something he wished Tony to understand.”

The white version was suddenly over Tony, pinning his shoulders to the building and straddling his hips.  “Well, if you really want to come into our realm uninvited, can I come into you uninvited?” he said, grinning at him.  Tony’s eyes went wide again.

“Shiro for fuck’s sake!” came Ichigo’s voice and the white version of Ichigo went flying backward and he was staring at the real Ichigo, dressed as they’d first seen him, in the black outfit.  He turned back to the white version.  “Dammit, you’re freaking him the fuck out, stop this shit.  We talked about you not interfering, but you insist!”

“Ah, King, I wasn’t gonna hurt him, I was just messin’ with him,” Shiro said, crossing his arms over his chest as he sat up on the building where he’d landed.  “He’s the one that came into our world!”

Ichigo sighed, rubbing his nose.  “Okay, yes, but I didn’t even know that was possible, my inner world has never been accessible to others.”

“Well, he’s special, you know that.  He’s connected to us.  Of course he can get in here, but he can’t get out without help.  If he touches the blade, he gets pulled in, same as when you commune, but he can’t control shit like you can, not yet anyway,” Shiro said, looking chastised and grumpy now.  “Besides, this is a new world, new fuckin’ rules, King.  Get used to it.”

Ichigo shook his head and reached down for Tony’s hand.  “Come on, Tony, I’ll take you back,” he said, sighing.

Tony took his hand and stood up slowly, staring at the white version of him and the man on the pole.  “Who…who are they?”

“Me, and not me, Zangetsu and Shiro are what I call them, though Shiro’s really the sword and Zangetsu is my other powers, but it doesn’t matter, hold on,” Ichigo said, pulling them both out of his inner world.

It was a really odd feeling to hold someone coming up from his inner world.  He felt the same sensations, but he also felt Tony’s perceptions of those sensations.  It was perhaps one of the strangest things he’d had happen in a while…and that was saying something.

Tony gasped as he felt himself return to his body.  He blinked and realized he was sitting on the floor in Ichigo’s lap and Ichigo was sopping wet and naked underneath him.  The sword was on the floor beside them.  He glanced at it and Ichigo let go and blinked a couple times.  Ichigo sighed.

“So, I didn’t know that would happen,” he said, then a rush of blood headed to his cheeks, and unfortunately elsewhere, as he realized that he had not stopped for a towel when JARVIS had said Tony had fallen unconscious.  “Um, I should…uh, dry off.” 

Tony nodded, pulling himself up on the bed as Ichigo got up and went to the bathroom once again.  Tony blinked.  Wow, so he might have had a more perfect body than Steve did…  His back had the defined v shape like Steve’s did, except it was narrower at the shoulder and less bulky.  In a way, there was almost a feminine curving to his back and the way he walked.  Tony shook his head.  Out of the gutter, Tony, out of the gutter. 

Ichigo emerged a few minutes later in a pair of jeans and a sleeveless t-shirt.  “Well, so, apparently you can go into my inner world.  As you can see, I’m somewhat split between three personalities of a sort,” he said, smiling.

Tony nodded.  “Inner world?  So the whole idea that there is really a soul and you can go inside it?” he asked, completely amazed that this would really be true.

“Yeah, well, Soul Reaper, remember?  Souls are kind of my business, I mean, the sword, this,” he said, picking up Zangetsu again.  “This is a physical manifestation of my soul as well.  That’s why you don’t recognize the metals or anything.”

“Sir, sorry for the interruption,” JARVIS said quietly.  “Miss Potts has arrived with Mr. Stone and requested you come to the conference room to sign the rest of the papers.”

Ichigo saw Tony’s shoulders tighten.  “I’ll go with you,” he said, smiling at him.

Tony started to argue but realized he wanted Ichigo to go with him.  “Okay, sounds good.”

Tony quickly changed into a suit and Ichigo went through the closet until he found a reasonably business casual outfit.  It was a pants suit that seemed to have heavy Asian influences with a _kusodo_ style jacket, and tailored pants.  He slipped on the pair of _geta_ that JARVIS had added for the order.  Interesting that the AI seemed to know him almost as well as he knew himself.  He came out of the changing room just as Tony came out of the bathroom again.

“Wow, I’ve never seen someone wear those things,” he said, pointing at Ichigo’s feet.

“ _Geta_?” he said, looking down at his feet.  “I’ve worn them a couple times, my mentor, Urahara, I used to call him _Getabishi_ , Hat and Clogs, because he wore _geta_ and a bucket hat all the time.”

Tony nodded.  “Do they mean something specific?” he asked.

“Depends on who you ask,” Ichigo said, smirking and heading toward the door.  “Shall we get your visit with this gentleman over with?”

“Let’s do that,” Tony said, smiling at him and walking in front of him. 

As they came out to the elevator he saw the others lounging around the living area.  “Going to a business meeting, Tony?” Natasha asked, glancing up.

“Yeah, figured that Ichigo could come with me,” he said, gesturing to him.  “Less boring that way.”

Tony could see that Steve wanted to say something, but didn’t.  It wasn’t up to him who he took to business meetings anyway.  He got into the elevator with the now quite a bit taller young man.  For some reason, that irritated Tony more than he thought it would.  They got down to the floor and headed to the conference room where Stone was sitting with Pepper and a couple of his attachés.  He saw everyone stare as he came in with Ichigo following him. 

“Okay, I’m here, got other things to do,” he said, sitting down at the head of the table between Pepper and Stone.  Ichigo stood behind him, crossing his arms and resting his hands inside his jacket sleeves.

Stone looked up at Ichigo.  “This is a private meeting, Stark,” he said, his voice dripping with annoyance. 

Tony looked at him.  “Tiberius, Mr. Kurosaki is my business intern.  I invited him to come watch the meeting.  Do you have a problem with that?”

Stone glanced at Ichigo who looked back with a calm, neutral face.  Stone smiled.  “Of course not, this is a business meeting, after all.”

Tony smiled and they negotiated a few things and signatures were done quickly.  After about half an hour, they were done.  Stone shook hands with Pepper and Tony, but Ichigo caught the way he squeezed Tony’s hand harder than necessary.  Tony hid the look of discomfort well, Ichigo saw.  He then watched as Stone left with his two men.  Tony sighed and flopped into his seat.

“Okay, I’m done for the day,” he said.

Pepper looked at him.  “Tony, what’s going on between you and Stone?” she asked.  She glanced at Ichigo, knowing that he knew something about it.  Ichigo sighed and she was sure there was much more to this than there seemed.

“Just leave it, Pepper,” Tony said, sighing and standing up.  “Please, just leave it.  I’m done with all the paperwork and I don’t have to deal with him again, that’s all that matters.  Ready, Ichigo?  Why don’t we go somewhere nice for lunch, why waste getting dressed for Stone’s behalf?” he said, grabbing Ichigo by the elbow and yanking him after him.

Ichigo frowned, letting himself be pulled and saw Pepper’s glare as they exited.  He guessed he deserved to be manhandled a bit.  Finally, they were in the garage and Tony picked out one of his cars and they headed out to a nice place.  It turned out “nice place” was a high dollar Japanese place in the penthouse of a sky rise building.  Ichigo stared at the menu as he sat down in the way fancier than necessary place and boggled at the prices.  He wasn’t great at conversions on the fly, but he was sure that over a hundred American dollars for a plate of food was on the very high priced end…

“Tony, you know, we could go to a ramen joint,” he said, looking over the menu to see Tony gulping down the goblet of water.

Tony nodded.  “I like this place,” he said, flagging the waitress over and ordering for himself.  “Order what you like, Ichigo,” he said, smiling.

Ichigo nodded, scanning the menu.  Everything was listed in Japanese and English, which made it easier for him to order.  He ordered in Japanese and the waitress blinked, and stared at him.

“Are you from Japan?  You have no American accent when you speak Japanese,” she asked in Ichigo’s native tongue.

“Hai,” he answered, smiling.  “Do you also come from there?”

The waitress smiled shyly.  “My parents do, but I was born here.  Um, I’ll get your order,” she said, blushing as she walked away.

“Wow, already snagging the ladies, huh?” Tony said, smirking at him.

Ichigo sipped at his water.  “Nah, not my area,” he said.  “Though I seem to have the annoying habit of attracting them.”

Tony glanced up as the waitress brought a bottle of sake and cups to them.  Ichigo thanked her in Japanese and she fluttered her eyes at him and grinned as she walked away.  He shook his head and poured the sake into the cups.  “At least they serve this correctly,” he said, smiling at Tony.

Tony clinked cups with him and sipped it.  “So, um, you said that girls weren’t your area.”

Ichigo nodded.  “Actually the whole romance thing isn’t my area,” he said smiling thoughtfully.  “Though Shiro seems to think we should fix that.  Fiendish thing, he is.  He’s not worried about love and romance, though.  Just the physical aspect.”

“What’s it like living with…them?” Tony said, not wanting to say living with them in your head because that just sounded crazy.

“Challenging,” he said, smiling across the table.  “But they’re part of me so I have to accept them.  I had trouble with Shiro at first, I had to best him in a fight in the inner world, a fight for dominance.  That’s why he’ll call me king.  He says as long as I’m strong, he’ll be the horse and I’ll be king, but if I ever weaken, he’ll become the king.”

Tony frowned.  “That sounds…interesting.  Can he do that?”

Ichigo nodded, sipping the sake lightly, realizing that the waitress hadn’t bothered to card him.  He must have aged.  “He can take over my body, has on occasion, usually when I’m about to die, or in one case when I did die,” he said, sighing.  He didn’t want to talk about that, though.  He cleared his throat and smiled again.  “So, that Stone guy’s a real bruiser, no wonder he intimidates people.”

Tony nodded, allowing the change in topic.  He could sense that Ichigo wasn’t quite comfortable revealing just everything yet.  “Yeah, that hasn’t changed much.”

“He’s nothing, you know, compared to you.  Your suit would crush him like a cicada,” Ichigo said, smiling.

The waitress brought their plates and after she left Ichigo realized she’d slipped a piece of paper under his plate when she sat it down.  He pulled it out and sighed, stuffing it into his jacket pocket.  Tony glanced up and frowned at him.

“She left her number,” he said, and they proceeded to eat in silence for a little while.  After they were done with their food Tony looked over at him.

“Well, does it pass for authentic Japanese food?” Tony said, smiling at him.

“Pretty well, but I’ll find us a real place that you’ll love even more, just give me time, still learning about New York,” Ichigo said as waitress came and picked up the dishes.  Again, she gave him the smile and blushing cheeks.  Ichigo, already tired of it, was growing annoyed with her hovering every chance she got.

“Miss,” he said in Japanese.  “I appreciate your interest, I do, but I’m really not looking for someone right now.”

She blinked, her hands shaking a bit as she held the dishes.  “Oh, I am sorry, I didn’t see a ring, and you are here with Mr. Stark.  I assumed you were business associates.”

Ichigo nodded.  “I’m afraid I’m not a business associate of Mr. Stark’s, quite the opposite,” he said.

She blinked, eyes going wide and then nodded quickly and left as fast as she could.

“I didn’t catch all that; you were talking too fast for me to get it all.  What did you tell her?” Tony said as he got up and slipped his jacket back on.  “Whatever it was sent her running.”

“Just told her I wasn’t interested.  No reason to get her hopes up that I’d call her when I won’t,” he said, standing and slipping into his own jacket.  They headed back to the tower and thought no more of their lunch outing.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Unfortunately, people talk, and before long, the waitress had told her friends, who told their friends, and word spread that Tony Stark was on the prowl again, only this time, he had been seen out with an unnamed male escort.  Before long, there was a tabloid splash article about Tony and Ichigo with several pictures that had been snapped of them together.  There were a couple from the park, a photo of them at the Japanese place, another when they’d been driving around together.  The title read “Playboy Changes Teams?” and sensationalized the whole thing.  Most annoying to those writing the article was that no one could figure out who Ichigo was.

When that paper landed on Stone’s desk almost two weeks later, he exploded.  There was no other way to put it.  There was no elegance or grace to what happened.  He ripped the paper to shreds and then proceeded to destroy his office.  After an hour, one of his men came in to see if he was in need of anything. 

“I want to know if that is true.  I want to know if Stark is dating that Japanese boy, that shitty orange haired freak of an intern.  I want to know everything.  I want the best detectives following their every move,” Stone practically snarled at him.

The man nodded, and headed out to do just that.  Stone picked up a piece of the ripped paper that caught his eye.  It was the boy, this boy with strange orange hair, and Tony sitting across from each other at a small ramen joint.  The look was all he needed to see, but he had to confirm it.  He had to know for sure.  Tony was his; this other interloper had no claim to him.  He would destroy him for thinking that he had a chance.


	5. Full Metamorphosis

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uploaded Revision 6-8-15  
> Beta'd by Emmagem803

Ichigo, of course, paid little mind to the media coverage.  Of course, the other Avengers were not so oblivious.  Steve sat at the table in the common dining and read the latest.  Another week had passed, and speculations were still running high.  The rebuilding of New York was moving slowly, and Tony was doing his part to help with that rebuilding with several of his subsidiaries.  Of course, there was the constant speculation of who should pay for the damage, and the blame ended up falling onto the Avengers more than one time.  This meant that any action by any of the Avengers ended up on the front page of the New York Times eventually.

This morning’s headline was rather sensational.

_New York Playboy Causing Stir Once Again_

“Tony, this can’t be going on!  Almost two weeks now!” Pepper’s voice echoed from the front as the elevator opened.  “We’ve got the PR guys from Stark Industries working nonstop to clean up the public image damaged by the mess made out of New York, and it doesn’t matter that you saved the world, the public doesn’t see that!  They see the destruction left behind, not what could have happened.  Now they’ve latched onto this story about your intern and you.  Did you know that more than one has printed an ‘exclusive expose’ saying that you’re getting married to him?  And there’s another one that says that he’s your long lost love child!”

Steve winced and put down the paper as a very annoyed looking Tony was being followed closely by Pepper who was waving a stack of papers at him.

“Look, Pep, I don’t care what they write!” he said, sighing dramatically.  “That’s the PR department’s problem.”

“You need to stay out of the public eye, Tony,” she said, running her free hand through her hair with an exasperated look.

Tony rolled his eyes at her.  “I’m not going to live locked in this tower.”

“But Tony, you know all princesses end up locked in a tower,” came Ichigo’s voice from the door to the kitchen.

Pepper turned and glared at him and expected Tony to make a smart ass comment back.  Instead Tony snorted.  “Yeah, well, this princess is _not_ getting locked in _this_ tower.”  He then turned on his heel and went to the other elevator heading to his workshop.  Pepper stared after him, then turned and looked at Ichigo with a sigh.

“The papers are having a field day with you,” she said.  “No one can find any records of your existence in Japan.  Tony got the important ones, and if these reporters hadn’t been digging as deep, it would have worked, but there’s no explanation as to why there’s no birth certificate or record of you ever being there.  It is going to become a problem.  Who are you, really?” she said, her eyes narrowing suspiciously at him.

“Ichigo Kurosaki, born and raised in Karakura Town, Japan.  You won’t find it on a map, though.  Not in this world,” he said smiling and heading back to the elevator to Tony’s workshop, leaving Pepper more confused than she started.

She turned to Steve who still sat at the table watching her.  “Who is he, Steve?”

“We don’t know, Pepper,” he said quietly.  “He’s powered, that’s all we know.  Fell out of the sky in the middle of Manhattan.  He’s scary powerful, and he’s possibly from a different realm like Thor and Loki.”

Pepper nodded.  “Okay, thanks,” she said and turned to leave to go back to deal with the PR nightmare that had just landed in her lap.  Honestly, she didn’t have the energy for this today…

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

“I want more information.  Who is he and where did he come from?” Stone ranted as he paced back and forth across the room. 

The private detective he kept on retainer sat at the front of his desk and watched as the tall man moved back and forth behind his desk.  His face was red and he was obviously infuriated.

“Um, sir, I can find no records even matching the family name that you gave me.  The name doesn’t exist, apparently.  There’s no records of someone his age being born, and no records of travel from Japan to the US that had anyone on the planes that remotely resembled the young man.  Whoever he is, he did not come from Japan.  Even then, there’s still no records of him past the obviously manufactured identity that Stark gave him.  The records and everything are good, but when you know what to look for, it’s easy to find out that it’s a only recently been created,” the detective said.

Stone continued to pace for a few minutes.  “He’s still a mystery, and Stark is covering for him.  I’ve sensationalized everything I could, got more tabloids onto the story than I can count, and sent random photos of them together to every paper I could find.  And none of them have turned up anything.  Have you been able to get into SHIELD’s systems to find out if he’s one of their ‘powered’ or ‘gifted’ people?”

The detective shook his dark head.  His hair was starting to fall into his eyes and annoying him to no end.  His wife would insist that he go get a haircut when he got done with this case.  She always teased him about how he never took care of himself when he was working on a case.  He hoped that Stone was done with him, because he’d reached the limits of his ability to find out information.  His two month old daughter was doing amazing things without him home.

“Anything is possible, sir, but SHILED’s systems are far too advanced for me to break through.  Tony Stark himself designed the security system, and there’s no way I can breech it,” he said sadly.  “I truly believe that I have done everything I can for you.”

Stone nodded, stopping his pacing and staring out the window.  “That’s a shame.  You were quite the valuable asset to me for a long time.”

The private detective smiled.  “Well, I’m glad to have been such an asset…” he began as Stone turned around and tossed something almost casually toward him.  His voice stopped when the knife severed the spinal column.

Stone turned and looked out the window again.  He needed to find out if this boy was one of the freaks or not.  So, perhaps, it was time to run some tests on some of his newest technology…anonymously of course.

He pressed he intercom button.  “Cleanup crew, in my office.  And put me through to Charlie’s gang.  I’ve got a job for him.”

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Ichigo headed down to workshop where he found Tony working on some upgrades to his armor.   He flopped into one of the chairs without saying anything and just watched him.  It was incredible to watch Tony work.  He became so completely engrossed in his work, it was almost like the rest of the world disappeared around him.  Ichigo actually kind of enjoyed watching him work.  His dexterity and speed when working with mechanical objects was simply stunning.  Before Ichigo knew it, several hours had passed and the AI spoke up.

“Sir, we have an Avengers level alert,” JARVIS intoned.  “A local bank is being held up by several men accompanied with what appear to be robots that are equipped with something similar to repulsor technology.  The police have requested SHIELD send you in because of your knowledge of mechanics.”

Tony nodded.  “Well, one good EMP would take care of them unless they’re shielded,” he said, standing up and heading toward his armor.  “I’ll be back Ichigo,” he said as he disappeared.  Ichigo waited approximately half a second before he flashed back to their room and flashed back into the workshop in his _shihakuso_.  Tony came back in and blinked.

“What are you doing?” Tony asked.

“Going with you,” he answered matter of factly.

Tony shook his head.  “No, you are not trained…”

Ichigo arched a brow.  “I can handle some robots.  Trust me I am not in danger in the least.”

“I’m not sure that Fury will…”  Tony was interrupted with JARVIS.

“Director Fury with a priority communication, sir,” he said.  “Putting it through.”

Tony sighed, clicking the helmet into place.  “What is it, Fury?”

“You need to get to the scene, now, Stark.  This is more than a few robots.  There are several flying drones in addition to the robots.  The humans that are trying to rob the bank are equipped with some sort of impenetrable armor and plasma based weapons.  We have hostages, and they aren’t issuing demands,” Fury said tightly.

“Got it, sir, um, Ichigo would like to come along.  It might be a good idea,” Tony said, somewhat hesitantly.  “Since we don’t know what they’re equipped with, and he’s unknown to them.”

There was a long pause and then Fury spoke again.  “It might be.  Keep an eye on him out there, Stark.  He needs to stay masked or something.”

Ichigo smirked and nodded, reaching up and pulling on the hollow mask.  Tony nodded.  “No problem, Fury, we’ve got it covered.”

The line closed and Tony looked at Ichigo.  “Follow me?” he asked.

Ichigo nodded.  “Sure,” he said, and then followed Tony as he stepped outside and took off in the air.

A few minutes later, they both landed at the bank and saw that police were doing a decent job at keeping people back.  Just after they landed, Steve drove up on his cycle.  He frowned at Tony for a moment.

“Why’s he here?” Steve asked, eyes hovering on Ichigo.

“Fury thought he could help and he wanted to come,” Tony said and looked around.  “Now, where are these…”

Tony didn’t get to finish the sentence as a ball of crackling energy came flying from seemingly nowhere and slammed into him, sending him back at least fifty feet.  Ichigo glanced back and saw something shimmer. 

“They have some sort of cloaking or invisibility,” he said, looking again for the shimmer.

There was a resounding boom and Thor landed in the middle of the fray, getting knocked off his feet almost immediately from the cloaked technology.  Ichigo groaned inwardly and shook his head.  He’d met Thor a few times in the last three weeks, and he liked him quite a bit.  He was jovial and accepting of others, and didn’t seem bothered by Ichigo’s power.  He just called him a “warrior mage” and left it at that.  Ichigo had no idea what that meant, but it must have been something special in Asgard.  Either way, he’d learned he was obsessed with his girlfriend Jane and pop tarts, both of which were frequent topics of conversation.  He shook his head as Thor got back to his feet and tackled an invisible foe. 

One thing he knew, creatures that could become invisible to the naked eye could be tracked, just not by their physical bodies.  Disturbances in the air and on the ground were the best way.  Ichigo managed to pull Zangetsu in time to deflect four blasts of energy that came at him upward where they exploded in the air.  He looked back where Tony was flying back at them.

“This could be a problem,” Tony said.  “Invisible robots.  Great.  And they’re completely immune to EMPs.  I can’t pick up their electronic signatures so it won’t work.”

“I’ve fought worse,” Ichigo said as he deflected another blast and Steve did the same with his shield. 

Ichigo sensed something and turned around just in time to block a physical attack from one of the robots.  He held up his left arm as it brought down one if its metal limbs toward him.  When it contacted him, a vibration and visible shiver moved outward from the impact point.  He saw his arm shake where the metal arm contacted it, and felt both the bones in his forearm shatter inside.  He yelled out and jumped back, pulling his arm against his body.

“What happened?” Steve yelled, deflecting another blow with his shield. 

Nearby thunder crackled as Thor got a good hit, unfortunately, it seemed they had accounted for his lightning powers because it didn’t drop them.  It was like they had counters for all the abilities of the Avengers.

“Don’t let them hit you!” Ichigo screamed, wincing as he used Zangetsu to block it as it came at him again.  “ _Teme_ shattered my ulna and radius with some sort of vibration emission.” 

Tony turned and looked at him.  “It shattered your arm bones?”  The unspoken words were how the hell are you still moving.

“Oh yeah, hurts like a bitch,” Ichigo said but of course the mask covered up his pained expression.  “How many of these things were there supposed to be?”

He winced as the com in his ear practically exploded and fell.  He glared at it.  He’d burnt one out last week when Tony had first fitted him with one.  It seemed his ambient power did something to the delicate circuitry, and this one Tony hoped would last.  It lasted longer, just not long enough.

Tony was facing off with one of the invisible assailants, trading energy blasts.  It was quickly becoming more and more obvious that these things knew how to counter both Steve and Tony with relative ease.  Ichigo looked up as an arrow zinged by him, impacting the robot and exploding, sending it to the ground.  Ichigo guessed that Natasha and Clint had arrived.  Losing his com was annoying because he couldn’t get hear them when they were shouting a warning to him through it.  Too late, he realized he had two on him, and something slammed into his side, and the same vibration shot through him and he screamed this time, louder than he expected.  That felt like someone tried to rip his lung right out of his side.

Tony shot the repulsor toward Ichigo and it hit the one that had come up behind him, blasting the robot back for a moment.  Ichigo needed to see these things, and he knew it.  He stood up as well as he could even though his insides felt like jelly.  He used the pain to force his lungs to expel to yell “Bankai!”  Then he blinked, feeling somewhat bolstered by the change for a moment.  He leaped, landing on top of the invisible assailant and swung downward as he leaped off of the thing’s shoulders.  He watched as a head appeared in midair followed by a quickly collapsing metal body.  He dropped, holding his injured arm against the side.  He heard Steve yell out and go down, the one on him had clipped his leg with whatever that weapon was. 

Ichigo was beginning to think that the robots released some sort of disruptive vibration that targeted bone when they struck flesh.  The good news was if that was the case, Tony was safe from them.  His suit should protect him completely.  They didn’t want to hurt Tony, Ichigo thought suddenly.  That meant that someone was targeting him, or were they targeting the others?  Every other attack was seemingly tailored to combat the different abilities of the Avengers, and to him, it would seem that having their strongest ability ignore one of the Avengers was a big mistake.

Ichigo flashed over in time to stop Steve from being hit by two at once.  He grinned.  He could see them in Bankai.  Fuzzy shapes, but he could see where they were.  Steve looked up where he was on one knee with surprise at Ichigo standing over him holding his sword up.  Just barely, Steve could see two mechanical arms over him being held up by that thin, black sword. A second later, a repulsor blast sent them flying up and off Ichigo’s sword.  Ichigo glanced down at Steve.

“Stay down, whatever that is shatters any bone it hits,” Ichigo said. 

He was about to turn around when something slammed into his back and sent him head over heels in a roll.  He went over and over until he got to the far wall.  He brought the whole thing down around him.  It wasn’t the first time he’d brought down a wall on top of him, and he wasn’t even as badly injured as he had been before, like when Renji fought him on the way to save Rukia.

 _King…_ came a voice piercing the pain filled haze in his mind.  _Yer fucked…unless….you’re ready? I can save us again.  You know I can._

Ichigo moaned and realized that it had shattered his spine and he couldn’t move anything.   It was as though he were completely numb below his neck and the numbness was spreading up slowly.  “Guess so.  How’s this work?” he asked in his head.  “I was a little bit dead last time, and you ended up skewering Uryū.”

“Same as last time, only this time, you’ll be awake, and we’ll be in it together,” Shiro said in a strange voice outside Ichigo’s body.

Outside the rubble, Steve and Tony were back to back as what they figured was three of these robots kept coming at them.  Steve had ordered Natasha and Clint to take care of the human assailants and let them handle the robot menace.  Thor had taken to the sky to take out the flying drones which were susceptible to his lightning powers. Tony glanced back at the rubble and wondered if Ichigo had survived that sort of blow, let alone a cave in like this.  He happened to be facing the rubble as he watched it explode and some _thing_ come out.  He wasn’t sure it was Ichigo, though, because it didn’t look like him anymore.

The mask had become horned and his eyes burned red inside the eye holes.  His skin had faded to pure white like the creature that Tony had met in what Ichigo had called his “inner world”.  His hair was still orange but now looked more like a beast’s mane than anything else, flowing down his back.  There were tufts of orange fur or hair around his wrists and ankles, and his finger and toenails had been replaced with what looked like razor sharp claws.  He looked more monster than man.  He still held the sword, however, the black blade glistening in the late afternoon light. 

The creepiest part, though, was the center of his chest was an open hole, and black lines flowed outward from it over his shoulders.  He roared and Tony’s eyes went wide because that was definitely not normal… His mouth was somehow unhinged and full of fanged teeth.  And the sound he made chilled both him and Steve to the core. Between the horns, a glowing red ball formed and then shot directly at where Steve and Tony were standing.  For a moment, both men thought that Ichigo had lost it completely and was going after them.  Then the orb hit one of the cloaked robots right above them and exploded it into a shower of metal and circuits.

Almost immediately, Ichigo, or whatever that was, ran full out toward them, and leaped over the pair of them and tackled one of the things to the ground and began ripping it apart with the claws as though ripping through paper.  Something hit him, and Tony saw it slice clear through his shoulder, deep enough that Tony knew he saw exposed bone.  However, as soon as it did, white foam poured out of the wound and when it faded, the wound was gone.  Ichigo left the now inert robot and threw another orb at the one behind him.  If Tony hadn’t been used to being around Bruce and the Hulk, this might have seemed strange.  There was one more, Tony knew, and it managed to grapple Ichigo and throw him again, but this time, Ichigo bounced back up immediately and used the sword to send an arc of black energy at the invisible foe, splitting it down the middle.

“Widow to Iron Man and Cap, we have secured the interior of the bank and the hostages.  The humans are in custody.  Status?” Natasha said. 

“I…don’t know,” Tony said into the com as Ichigo came toward them. 

Steve, though he couldn’t stand, held his shield in front of them.  As good a person as Bruce was, he was still dangerous as the hulk.  Were they dealing with the same sort of thing with Ichigo?  As Ichigo walked toward them, though, he began to revert slowly back to normal.  His skin was shifting back to normal and his hair changing back more and more with each step.  The mask cracked and broke off his face, and underneath, his eyes were yellow and black like the being that Tony had met.  Slowly, they melted back to brown and Ichigo was standing in front of them with his sword at his side.  His clothes had been shredded, his pants the only thing that remained, but even that was limited to the barest amount.  He smiled at Tony.

“So that’s what Shiro meant,” he said, smiling suddenly before dropping to his knees.  He teetered for a second then fell forward flat, the sword skidding out of his hands and reverting to the large, wide sword from the thinner katana version.

Tony went and rolled him on his back. 

“JARVIS!” Tony asked and confirmed he was fine, just physically drained.  Tony looked up in time to see Clint reach to pick up the sword.  He gasped and yelled out, “Don’t touch it, Clint!”

Clint frowned and looked at him.  “Why not?  It’s been handled before by SHIELD agents,” he reasoned.

“Not since he changed,” Tony said, picking him up.  He moved over and picked up the sword with his gauntlet.  “Better safe than sorry, just don’t want anything to happen, bird boy.”

Clint shook his head and glanced at the mechanical minions they’d dispatched, or rather Ichigo had dispatched.  “Make sure that the debris is taken back to the lab.  I want to know who the hell made these things.”

A med unit had pulled in and loaded Steve up to go get him looked at.  A few minutes later a second one pulled up and Tony put Ichigo in.  “Take him back to the tower and have Bruce look him over when he’s done with Steve.” 

Tony took off and headed back to the tower again, hoping to beat the med units back because he knew that Ichigo would be out of sorts without his sword.  He headed to the med bay once he’d gotten out of his armor.  He paused, though, because at the entry of the common room was a huge vase of purple flowers.  Tony stopped and stared at them.  False dragonheads.  Also called the obedient plant.  Only one person had ever given those to Tony.  Tony shook the thought away because there was no way Tiberius was connected to what just happened, no way.

He saw there was a card in the flowers.  He pulled it off and stared for a long moment.

“Hope you enjoyed the new toys I sent for you to play with.”

Tony felt the world swim, and a combination of things slammed into him as he held to the desk.  His knees seemed to be unable to hold him.  The world sort of dimmed in and out for a moment until he felt someone’s arm around him.

“Tony!” he heard and looked up into familiar brown eyes fringed by orange brows.  Tony blinked.  “Are you okay?” Ichigo asked, his face lined with worry.

Tony nodded and straightened up, his hand shaking with the card in it.  Ichigo grabbed it and then glanced at the vase of flowers.  “From him?” Ichigo asked, though he didn’t need to ask to know that.

Ichigo took his sword from Tony and then led him to the bedroom and sat him on the bed slowly.  He laid Zangetsu down on the bed behind them and sat down beside him.

“I can’t believe this.  He built those, or at least had them built.  He sent them out so we would have to fight them.  And you and Steve got hurt, because of me,” Tony said morosely. 

Ichigo rolled his eyes.  “Bruce says that Steve should be fine by tomorrow thanks to your nano tech and his healing abilities, and I’m already back to normal.”

“It wouldn’t have happened if Stone didn’t have this stupid obsession,” Tony said with a sigh.

“How did it happen?” Ichigo asked, reaching over and taking one of Tony’s hands.

Tony looked at Ichigo’s hand first then up at his face.  “I was stupid, you know.  I went to MIT at fourteen.  I was picked on and had to fight for my position.  Stone I had known before I went to school, briefly, and he was five years older than I was.  He started the same year I did.  Well, we were friends, and when I was sixteen he said that…that I had to pay him back.”

Ichigo frowned.  “For what?”

Tony reached up and rubbed his forehead slowly.  “I was stupid, and I just…I really thought I owed him.  He’d helped with the bullies; he’d fought on my behalf when I was just a skinny, nerdy brat.  He stood up for me so many times.  So…I let him convince me to come to his place and when I realized what he meant, that he wanted me to sleep with him, I flipped out on him, told him no way, I wasn’t into that, didn’t want to even think about it.” Tony swallowed hard and then sighed.  “I can’t even remember most of it, that night.  I just remember being scared and feeling trapped and alone.”  Tony paused and chewed his lip for a second.  “The next morning he told me that I belonged to him, that no one else could claim me because he’d already done so.  I had no idea what he was talking about, I just wanted to leave, get as far away from him as I could.  But I couldn’t get away.  He took me everywhere he went, he made me stay with him each night.  He said…he said if I didn’t stay with him…he’d taped our first night, and he’d send it to my father.  I knew what would happen if he did that.  I couldn’t let it happen.  Howard Stark wasn’t the most understanding man in the world.”

Ichigo’s grip had tightened on Tony’s hand, mostly because the pain was very visible on Tony’s face from the experience.  “Then I graduated and my parents died, and I was gone, and I thought I was rid of him.  I made sure to show him that I wasn’t his.  All the women, you know.  But I got into drugs and alcohol just to forget too.  I thought I was moving on, I just never faced it.  I thought if he saw that I had moved on, then he’d be out of my life.”

Ichigo nodded.  “I understand, Tony, and I’m going to do everything I can to make sure you don’t have to deal with him ever again.”

Tony glanced over at the clock.  It was almost ten at night.  “Ichigo?  Stay in here tonight with me, in the bed.  I know if someone isn’t here, I’m going to have a flashback, and…”

Ichigo put a finger to Tony’s lips.  “That’s fine.”

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Fury stared in awe at the video from the scene and as he read the testimony of the Avengers.  He also had the results that he’d gone over before from Stark’s testing.  He also had preliminary results on the technology.  Most of it was stolen Stark Industries tech, with a bit of AIM tech in there too.  He had no idea who had made these things, but they were more sophisticated than anything they had seen.  Tony was the only one who could come close to making something of that complexity.

Analysis was still pending on the vibration weapon.  So far, all four had been damaged pretty badly, and it was going to take Stark putting them back together before they could even understand what they were.

However, he was more worried about this Ichigo Kurosaki.  They had no idea how to even contain something with that much raw power.  The tests that Tony had done previously had indicated a lot of power.  They did not indicate near what Ichigo showed in the fight.  Fury wasn’t sure if he had purposely held back or if the increase in power had to do with the fact he was still evolving since arriving.

“Sir?” Maria Hill said from the door.  “Medical report from when the med vac took Kurosaki to the Tower.”

Fury took the file and opened it.  He frowned a bit and grabbed the initial report, and the one that had been taken at the tower.  His body was stabilizing.  The readings initially were almost random; his cellular structure was in a state of major flux.  The second scans showed a reduced amount of flux and systems coming on line with human normal.  His heart rate and respiration, though, were steadily growing faster, though, as were things like his metabolism.  That was why he had practically no body fat… his body couldn’t retain it.  So why did he look normal?  Surly a body…  Fury nodded.  He kept thinking in human terms.  Kurosaki’s body was based now on human physiology, but it was not human.

He looked at the last report.  Whatever was changing in his body had stabilized after he transformed into the beastlike creature.  His DNA was no longer in flux, but it was still not human by any standards.  What was more interesting was that he seemed to have three separate DNA sequences at the same time.  One seemed to be primary, and the other two were like secondary sequences.  He shook his head. Bruce would have to explain it.  There was a knock on the door.

“Enter,” Fury said and looked up.  It was Steve.  “Can I help you with something Captain Rogers?”

Steve nodded and sat down.  “Um, yeah, I wanted to talk about the Kurosaki kid.”

Fury carefully closed the files and nodded.  “Okay.  What do you want to talk about?”

“I…I think I was wrong.  I don’t think he’s a threat to us,” he said with a definitive nod.

“What?  I thought with that incredible display of power you would surely have wanted to neutralize him more than before,” Fury said, completely surprised by Steve’s change of heart.

Steve nodded.  “At first I was skeptical, sir, and I can only go by what I saw out there yesterday.  He put himself between me and those things.  Tony said he had no idea that he could transform like that until it happened.  He said that it happened in his world, but he didn’t know for sure that he could initiate it here.  Bruce…Bruce said that he could see the damage to him.  My leg heals fast, but I’ll be in this brace for a few more days to be safe, but he…Bruce has never seen anything like it.  He could see where those things shattered his bones.  He had a shattered forearm, sir, and seven completely shattered ribs, and he still put himself between me and two of those things.  Bruce said that it shattered his entire spinal column up into the back of his skull when it knocked him through that wall.  He could see where the damage had occurred and healed, even though the healing happened nearly instantaneously.”

Fury nodded.  “So you’re saying since he’s self-sacrificing we should trust him?”

Steve shook his head.  “No, sir, not that at all.  I’m saying I trust him, and I think you should too.  Natasha feels the same.”

Fury arched the brow over his good eye.  “She does?”

Steve nodded.  “There’s something else.  Something…something’s been going on with Tony for the last few months.  Well, Pepper said that he’s been different since the Invasion, but it has gotten so much worse recently.  We’ve all noticed it, but we just thought it would go away.  He has been distant and always looks like he hasn’t slept.  He’s been living on diet of caffeine and sugar from what I’ve seen.  I believe that’s what drove Pepper to break it off with him finally, and he was getting worse.”  Fury had suspected some of those things.  “And then this kid shows up, and it’s like they’re…I can’t explain it…pieces of a puzzle that fit together.  When Ichigo and Tony are in the same room, Tony’s different.  He smiles more, he just seems happier.  When they aren’t together, Tony is more despondent.  I don’t know what it is, but…Pepper doesn’t want him around because of the bad press.”

“Bad press…” Fury muttered.  “The papers have been trying to figure him out.”

Steve nodded.  “Yeah, but there’s something else.  Tony and I, we aren’t the same, but after what he did for saving New York, and the other things he’s done since then, I have a lot of respect for him and see through a lot of his arrogance for what it is, a cover for deeper areas he doesn’t wish to share.  But, before Ichigo got here, not long before, he started having these…panic attacks around me.  Bruce said it was PTSD, and that I shouldn’t worry, but why me?  He’s been fine since Ichigo has been staying with him, but still, I catch him looking at me sometimes and I wonder if he’s seeing someone else.”

Fury nodded.  “I’ll see what I can find out.  Thanks for coming by, Captain.  I’ll be in touch.”

Steve got up and left, closing the door behind him.  Fury opened the file again.  There was a stamp across the outside of the folder.  Level One Gifted.  Termination Recommended. Uncontrollable Variable.  Steve Rogers was listed as Level Three Enhanced, Tony Stark Level Three Gifted for his intelligence, and Level Four Enhanced for his suit.  Level One was reserved for those they couldn’t really quantify.  He stared at it for a long moment before he picked up the folder and ripped it in half, reaching in his desk and grabbing another to replace it.  He collected all the files and put in the folder and went to the door.

“Hill,” he called and Maria came over.  He handed her the file.  She stared at it for a minute.

“Sir, are you sure?” she asked, frowning.

Fury nodded and disappeared back into his office.  Maria took the file to the scan room to input it and generate the necessary paperwork.  Once that was done, she collected everything and put it all back in the file.  The front read Kurosaki, Ichigo, Member: Avengers Initiative, with Fury’s approval stamp.


	6. The Newest Avenger

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: There are some changes going on in the previous chapters that I have yet to post. I’ll let you know when I post the edits. The biggest is that Ichigo is a little less aggressive (originally he was written to run away from SHIELD not join them), and this takes places during the Hydra raids before Age of Ultron. I’ll update the previous chapters to reflect that. The helicarrier has been in use, also, and Tony still has the arc reactor, having decided not to go ahead with the surgery at the end of the events of IM3. Reminder, Steve is different than MCU Steve, a little more comic influence than the movies show.

 

Ichigo was certain that these guys were seriously going to kill him one of these days the more he read about this world.  Well, they would try, but he was beginning to worry more and more.  He didn’t want them to try, he wanted to stay there, but with this Hydra thing, and now him showing up, he was wondering how much of his power was going to be too much for them.  He sighed, rubbing his eyes thoughtfully. 

Tony looked up from his repairs on the suit he was doing.  “What’s that look for?”

Ichigo looked up and smiled at him.  “Nothing, just noticing that I sort of am a variable that your people don’t usually take well to having around.”

Tony nodded.  “Yeah, the power…” he said, looking up at the suit again.  “But you’re a good guy, they know it now.”

“Do they?” Ichigo said, rubbing his eyes again.  “I mean, I’ve helped you out once.  But is that enough?”

Tony nodded.  “You’ve read up on some of the other incidents that have happened with powered people and the index.”

Ichigo nodded.  “Yeah, I just…I don’t want to hurt anyone.  And I don’t want to have to defend myself because I don’t know what kind of damage it would lead to, you know?”

Tony nodded, shutting the panel on the leg piece.  “Don’t worry, I mean it isn’t like Fury…”

“Sir, Director Fury has arrived upstairs and is requesting your presence and Mr. Kurosaki,” JARVIS interrupted.

Tony chewed his lip and Ichigo stared at him.  “Okay, well, it doesn’t mean anything, come on,” Tony said, gesturing him to follow.

Ichigo didn’t want things to end already.  He could run, he was sure of that, with his speed and power, he could hide.  However, if there was any possibility of getting home, his best bet was with these people.  Even if there was no chance of going home, these people were the good guys.  He didn’t want to be against them.  And that wasn’t even counting his connection to Tony.  He’d been pretty high on the bluster and blow so far; maybe he should have been less blatant.    

When the doors opened, Ichigo’s worry did not decrease.  Fury, the man he’d only seen once, was waiting with his hands behind his back staring with one eye at him.  Behind him, the others from the Avengers stood and watched.  Ichigo shoved both hands in his jean pockets and looked around at each other them.  One of the women he’d seen from the helicarrier stood beside Fury.

“What’s up?” Tony asked, brows furrowing immediately.

Fury nodded.  “I’ve come to a decision on Kurosaki,” Fury said with a nod to the man standing behind Tony.

Tony immediately bristled, visibly, and crossed his arms over his chest.  “You have.”

Fury had a hard time keeping a straight face sometimes.  “I have.  After the incident in which he participated, and taking information from the team, I’ve decided that I want to extend you a permanent position on the Avengers.”

Tony started to say something and then stopped.  “A position?” he said instead.

Ichigo looked between them and saw the subtle smirk on Natasha’s lips and that Steve was staring at him with a decidedly different look than before.  “A…well…of course.  I’d love to help you with this Hydra business, and everything,” he stammered, not really sure what to say.  He hadn’t expected this. 

“I know it is rather sudden.  I am sorry about that, normally the process is longer to train and decide this sort of thing, but considering the position we’re in, we can use your help, son,” Fury said with a nod.

Ichigo couldn’t believe it.  He was going to be able to stay and they weren’t going to try and kill him?  He smiled and grabbed the nearest person, which was Tony, and hugged him.  Tony froze for a second and then patted Ichigo’s back and smiled when he was let go.  The others smiled and chatted as Ichigo took their hands and thanked them for letting him join them.  Fury glanced at Tony who was sporting a distinct blush, which was something that Fury rarely saw.  He arched a brow and glanced at Steve and saw that he noticed as well.  Fury rarely knew Tony to get uncomfortable around anyone…

“Well, obviously, going around with your name  plastered everywhere won’t be a good idea for you.  You aren’t from this world, but considering what you did in the last, we’ve labeled you with the codename Shinigami.  With that mask thing, you should be able to cover your identity in the battles that you fight in.  Now, we’ve got the medical files from Tony, but there are some really strange readings…” Fury said, looking at him.

Tony spoke up.  “Yeah, that’s changed.  His body has stopped doing whatever it was doing, and has settled into homeostasis.  I’d suggest a new series of tests to get a baseline.  The readings we got before are already out of date since the whole changing in the field.”

Ichigo nodded.  “Yes, I agree.  It seems my heartrate has settled down to human normal, at least close to it, anyway.  And the rest you’ll have to test.”

Fury nodded.  “Very well, Stark, Banner, if you could conduct the tests and send the results onward to his files, that would be appreciated.”

Fury and the woman left and Tony grabbed Ichigo by the arm to lead him to the labs again.  This time, he was a little more accommodating and let the others closer to him than before.  He felt less like a target and more like a person, like he was accepted by these people.

After the testing, Bruce came back over and looked at him.  “So, your metabolism is off the charts, but for some reason you don’t require intake of food to maintain it like I would expect.  Your body has settled into a resting heart rate of around 130, high for a human, but better than the insane amounts you showed before.  Your body is similarly built to a human one, the body fat percentage slightly abnormal at around two percent.  A bit less than Steve, but be can’t be sure what your body processes yet.”

Ichigo nodded.  “When I was in soul society, the only people that needed to eat were those with high spiritual energy, like the shinigami.  Even then, it was possible to go long periods without food.  Perhaps my body accommodated for that change.  Do you see any way that this process would be reversed?  If there was any way to get back to my own world?”

Bruce shook his head.  “I can’t say.  Tony’s running a massive amount of theoreticals through the system, but we haven’t come up with anything certain.  We can’t figure out how you got here, let alone how to get you back.”

Ichigo nodded.  “Yeah, but that’s okay, Banner-sensei.  If we can’t, we can’t.  I might be okay here,” he said, glancing through the glass where Tony was talking to Steve.  He noticed that Tony seemed to be better around the super soldier.

“He’s better with you here,” Bruce said suddenly.  Ichigo blinked and looked back at him.

“What do you mean?” he asked, trying to seem unaware.

Bruce took off his glasses and cleaned them on his t-shirt.  “We all see it, he’s up here more, out of the shop, and he talks more, just a lot of things.  He’s just better.  And whatever the deal is with Steve, it isn’t so bad anymore.”

Ichigo nodded then looked over at Bruce.  “You noticed that,” he said softly.

“We all did, Steve did.  I don’t know the reason, none of us do.”  Ichigo chewed his lip for a second and then looked back at Bruce.  “But you know,” Bruce said, nodding slowly.

Ichigo couldn’t tell him, he couldn’t break Tony’s confidence.  “I do,” he said, softly.  “I do, and there is a reason, but it isn’t mine to tell.”

Bruce nodded.  “Alright, well, that’s all for now.  I’ll send this to Fury.  You need to have Tony come up with a com system that won’t fry when you change forms.”

Ichigo smirked.  “Yeah, that one didn’t last long.”

Ichigo hopped down and went back out the door just as it seemed Tony was getting to the nervous point with Steve.  Steve wasn’t trying to be pushy, Ichigo was seeing that clearly.  But Steve was explaining something, and as he did he got closer to Tony and his tone was strong.  Ichigo knew it was a military thing, he could tell by the stance and the way he spoke.  Ichigo dropped his hands on Tony’s shoulders and felt the tension across them.

“Tony, don’t argue with the _taichou._ ” 

Steve looked at Ichigo over Tony’s shoulder.  “ _Taichou_?” he repeated.

“Captain,” Tony muttered, and finally Ichigo felt his muscles relax a little.

“ _Hai_.  Now, what are you two arguing about?” Ichigo said, squeezing the muscles under his fingers as he spoke.

“Um, Steve was worrying over some of the formations and group assignments when you were added to the team, I told him that we’d figure it out, but he wants to figure it out this minute…” Tony said, and Ichigo understood. 

“Ah, well, how about Rogers- _taichou_ and I go down to the training room and talk tactics, since I can explain my abilities better now that I know them, and you go back to fixing the damage to your suit or exploring those _baka_ that we were fighting,” Ichigo said, looking up at Steve.  Steve nodded and Tony did too.

“Yeah, good idea, that works,” he said, and turned and headed back to the elevator, leaving Ichigo and Steve in the hall.

“You know what’s going on,” Steve said softly.

“I do, come on, we’ll take care of this,” he said, motioning toward the training rooms.

It took nearly two hours of working with Steve, but finally he thought the man had a good idea of what he could do and how it fit into the group.  Ichigo didn’t think he was too bad anymore, now that he wasn’t treating him like a possible problem.  After looking into this Winter Soldier thing he understood his hesitance.  This Hydra was nasty business to do the terrible things they did.  He supposed after everyone turning on each other, trusting a new person was difficult.  He almost ran right into Natasha while he was thinking.

“ _Sumimasen_ ,” he said, stepping back.  “I was thinking on other things.”

Natasha nodded.  “That’s okay.  How are you?”

Ichigo smiled.  “I worked out some formations with Rogers _-taichou_.”

She stared for a long time.  “You seemed relieved when Fury told you he wanted you to join the Avengers.”

Ichigo nodded slowly.  “I was afraid that he would want to put me in a box.”

Natasha shook her head.  “I don’t think anyone can put you in a box, kid,” she said and went on past him.

While that was true, Ichigo wasn’t sure why, in the end, they’d decided to let him join them.  Unless of course it was one of the keep your friends close, your enemies closer ideas.  He hoped not, he was looking forward to helping them. 

It didn’t take long before they were in the field again.  Ichigo’s shihakuso became his attire to wear in the field, which was fitting since it was the most comfortable for him.  It took Tony three tries to make a com that withstood the base energy he emitted, especially when he went into what he’d dubbed fully hollow form.   Unlike Bruce’s Code Greens, he could fight without going into the transformation.  However, the few times he’d done it left him unable to move afterward, so they had agreed at Code White would have to be only when they were in real trouble and hopefully, as an ending to a conflict.  Things worked well, especially once he got used to the ways in which the team worked together.  He soon was just as valuable to them as any of the other members.  He even got used to Thor’s odd manner of speaking.  It had been hard enough to begin speaking nearly entirely English, and then Thor’s archaic words made him even harder to understand.  

What was amusing was what the others had picked up from him.  The name _taichou_ had stuck on Steve surprisingly quickly, and all of the group could be heard using _sumimasen_ now and then, and for some reason, Ichigo thought it was amusing.   

Ichigo had dubbed Bruce _Ōkina midori_ when he was in hulk form, or just _midori._   When he called Bruce, he used Banner-Sensei or _Ishi._  He called Natasha _Kurogokegumo,_ for obvious reasons.  _Taka no me_ was Clint’s name, and Tony, of course, was _Tetsujin._ They all thought it amusing that he gave them all names, even thought they were really just translations.  It gave him a way to connect with people that were otherwise strangers.  Pepper, even, had gotten used to him, and with the presence of a new Avenger, the papers had left the “mystery man” alone.

All in all, things seemed to working out in good ways, then, Ichigo realized that he was far ingrained into this world, so far that he didn’t think he ever wanted to leave. 

It had been an eastern European nation where they were trying to break into a new Hydra facility that they thought might house the scepter they were searching for.  No one really expected things to go differently than the several times beforehand.  As they breeched the defenses, something launched and Tony was the only one in the air.

“Oh shit!” he said, and Ichigo looked up.

“What is it?” Steve yelled into the com, already into the building and unable to see.

“Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit…” Tony repeated and zipped down past where Ichigo was dropping the hydra agents converging on him.  It seemed they got the memo that he was dangerous. 

“Tony, for the love of…  What is it?” Steve yelled.

“Got incoming, hot, heat sensing missile…” he said franticly. 

“That’s not that big of a deal, Tony…”

“Jericho, repeat it is a Jericho style missile.  If it goes, it will take the entire area, I’m trying to lure it over the ocean,” Tony rattled off and they could hear the tension in his voice.

“Jericho?” Ichigo said, looking at Natasha who had brought down her opponent.  “That’s the thing that those people tried to make him build them.”

Natasha nodded, turning and dropping a pair of men coming from the left without looking.  “One big missile that when it closes in on the target opens and ejects multiple missiles.  That’s why he’s trying to stay far enough ahead to avoid the trigger mechanism.  If it gets too close, it will go.”

Ichigo nodded.  “Can you handle this?  If I can catch it, and cut the insides out, maybe I can stop it.”

She nodded, “We’ve got this handled, go take care of that thing.  There’s a lot of people at risk if it goes off.”

Ichigo nodded, taking off at his fastest, feeling the same exhilaration that came from moving this fast.  He finally caught up with the streaking Iron Man Suit.  “Tony!” he called into the com.  “Can I disable it while it’s locked on to you?”

“You can’t possibly move that fast,” he said in response.

“I can, if I go White.”

“But if you do that, you’ll be exhausted.  You can’t do anything while you recover,” Tony said with a worried tinge to his voice.

“Yeah, well, you’ll have to take care of me, huh?” Ichigo said and concentrated and brought Shiro to the surface with a guttural yell.  Finally he was moving with so much speed that the missile seemed almost slow. “Now, what do I do?”

After a few minutes of tense discussion about what was on the missile, Ichigo found that the device was going to be impossible for him to disable.  He would have to gut it, but they were over the ocean now. 

“Tony, I’m going to slice it.  You head back to land and I’ll make sure each one detonates over the ocean,” Ichigo said, smiling to himself. 

“You can’t…” Tony started.

“I’ll be fine, you go back,” Ichigo said as he cut open the missile and watched as Tony flew back behind him before he began slicing the thing into pieces.  As fast as he was, the high yield missiles were small and fast.  He had to catch a few that were veering toward ships and then he realized one was going the way he came.  He snagged the last one and turned to head back.

“Tony!” he yelled just as the last of the small missiles impacted Tony’s suit, sending him crashing to the ground.

Ichigo landed, leaving as much of a crater as Tony had, and ran to catch up to where he’d fallen.  The com was only static from Tony.  He heard Steve asking for a status report but he didn’t have time for that.  He yanked off the facemask and found Tony completely unconscious. 

“Tony!” he said, reaching in and feeling for his pulse.  He found it; he was alive. 

He snatched him up and headed back to where the others were waiting with the Quinjet.  He was at his limit though, and as soon as he landed, he nearly dropped him.  The mask cracked to pieces and he fell to his knees as soon as someone took Tony from him.  “Help him,” he muttered as he fell forward and passed out.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Stone was furious with the lack of response he was getting from Stark lately.  Several weeks had passed, and he had been very busy.  He hadn’t had time to deal with his errant property.  He had seen the news of this new “Avenger”.  He went by the name Shinigami and wore a Japanese influenced outfit.  Stone wasn’t fooled.  Tony started hanging out with a mystery Japanese man, then all of sudden the Avengers have a Japanese “hero”.  This complicated matters, though.  If this Shinigami was the man in the pictures, he was not going to be easy to get Tony away from.

He looked up as a knock on the door jostled him out of his thoughts.  “Enter.”

A man with a case stood at the door.  “Mr. Stone,” said the man, his accent thick and of some sort of Eastern European descent. He was an older man, balding, with white hair fringing above his ears.

“Who are you?” he asked, arching a brow.  “And why are you here?”

“I am Dr. Klaus Meyer.  I work for Hydra.  I understand the Avengers and their new pet vex you.  As he vexes us.  I propose a plan to help get rid of this nuisance,” the man said.

Stone nodded.  “I’m listening.”

“The man appears to have a significant weakness in our observations.  He is incapacitated after he reaches his fullest power.  The trick to defeating him is to bring out this power early in an encounter, making him useless in the rest of it.  To do this, you need to make them believe that the greatest threat is earlier.  We can provide this.  Then, if you can enter the fray and remove him, we shall contain him for testing,” he said with a nod.

Stone nodded slowly.  “Alright.  I can do this, let us discuss the where and when,” he said, smiling, and of course, having no intention of letting the boy get away alive. 

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

It took Tony a few hours to wake up, the entire time, Ichigo refused to leave the med bay, much to Bruce’s annoyance.  Bruce kept telling him that there was nothing wrong, he’d just gotten a moderate concussion and a broken arm where he’d lost the armor before he fell.  Ichigo still didn’t want to let him wake up alone, though.  He couldn’t, wouldn’t, let that happen.

Finally, Tony came around with a groan.  “Anyone get the number of the train?” he muttered.

“Tony!” Ichigo said jumping at his voice.

“How long have you been sitting there?” Tony muttered, reaching up and rubbing his forehead.

Bruce came into view, glancing at the monitors.  “Only five hours.”

“Five hours?  After you went White?” Tony said.  “You should have rested.”

“I couldn’t, I wanted to make sure you were okay,” Ichigo said, shrugging.  “I don’t like to wake up alone, so I didn’t want you to wake up alone either.”

Tony rolled his eyes and groaned.  “Wow, so that packed a little more punch than the original Jericho missiles…” he muttered.

Bruce nodded.  “Yeah, you’re damn lucky to be alive.  That thing nearly took off your arm as it was,” Bruce said, checking his cast.  “You managed to get out with a concussion and a severe ulna and radius break.  You’re going to be out of commission for a couple weeks, Tony.  I mean it this time.”

Tony snorted and rolled his eyes.  “Wonderful.  I guess you can call in Rhodey if you need him,” he said softly.  He felt thoroughly unnecessary now.

“Hey, don’t be like that, with your suit, you’ll be able to get in soon enough.  I bet you can modify it so your arm is protected,” Ichigo said, smiling.  Bruce glared at him.

Tony looked at him and nodded.  “Yeah, but you’ll have to help me.  That does require two good hands.”

Ichigo smiled again.  “I can do that. I’m very good with my hands!”

Tony felt the blood rush to his cheeks despite his attempts to stop it.  He heard the damn heart monitor speed up too, damn medical instruments.  “Yeah, I guess you are.”

Bruce glanced over to the pair and shook his head.  Idiots, both of them, he thought to himself.  If it wasn’t so obvious it wouldn’t be so painful to watch.

“Can he go to his room, _Ishi_?  I can help him and make sure he rests,” Ichigo said, standing.  He’d already changed into a pair of jeans when he got back, though he wobbled a bit from his own exhaustion.

“As long as you _both_ rest once you’re there.  You aren’t recovered from using White yet,” he said, looking at the young man sternly.

Ichigo nodded enthusiastically and helped get Tony vertical.  They headed out the door a bit slowly, but Ichigo made sure that Tony was careful with his arm.  Tony smacked him twice for trying to hover over him.  Bruce shook his head but looked up as Natasha came in, watching them as well.

“Well, have they figured things out yet?” she asked.

Bruce shook his head.  “No.  Have we?” he asked, looking up at her, his face softening immediately.

She shook her head.  “No,” she answered and turned and left him with a ghost of a smile.

Ichigo finally got Tony into his bed and now was arguing with him over changing into sleep clothes.

“I can change my own clothes, dammit!” he said sternly.

To which, Ichigo snorted and grabbed his night clothes and started working his t-shirt off of him carefully over the casted arm.  Tony finally stopped grumbling and let him put the sleep shirt on him.  Tony stood up and started to unbutton the jeans he was wearing only to find that task much more difficult with his dominant hand in a cast.  He frowned and saw Ichigo staring at him with his hands on his hips.  Tony sighed and spread his arms open.  Ichigo nodded and undid the button and zipper and helped him shimmy the jeans off.  Ichigo helped him get the pajama pants on and then nodded.

Tony glared at him harshly.  “You too.”

Ichigo shook his head.  “What?”

“Bruce said you too.  So you get yourself into your own sleeping clothes and lay your skinny, Japanese ass down and sleep,” Tony said, pulling the comforter up around him and patting the bed.

Ichigo shook his head.  “There?  I could go in another room, you know I don’t have to…” he stammered.

“I have a king size bed, you’re clothes and things are in here, so just change and get over here and sleep,” Tony groused and rolled over to his left side, keeping the right on his hip.

Ichigo sighed, heading to the drawers he’d claimed and pulled out a yukata and changed quickly before going to lay down at Tony’s back.  He’d never laid down with another guy before, he thought.  Especially not one he might kind of sort of have an affection for.  Or be connected by the red string of fate.  He swallowed and rolled over to face his back and put his arm over his waist as he fell asleep.

Tony gasped when he felt as Ichigo laid an arm over him but then he fell right to sleep.  Tony wasn’t sure what that meant.  He wasn’t sure at all, but all he knew was that he fell asleep faster than he had in a very long time.


	7. First Touches, Last Hope

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to be editing this chapter and chapter six. Chapters one through five have all been reworked, a lot of content added, but no real changes to the story except moving to pre Age of Ultron.

Ichigo woke the next morning to a good warmth beside him.  He snuggled his face into that warmth and wasn’t disappointed when it seemed to grow closer to him.  It was nice, something Ichigo wasn’t used to have.  He hummed appreciatively as he felt an arm tighten around him.  He was still half asleep and didn’t really remember where he was, but he was warm and tucked into someone’s body and he liked it quite a bit.  He pulled the body tighter to him and sighed, falling back into a deep sleep again almost immediately.

Tony wasn’t sure what to think.  Sometime during the night he’d moved to his back and Ichigo had curled up on his left shoulder and arm.  He’d also wrapped his arms around Tony’s chest in his sleep.  He glanced down at the top of the orange haired head and smiled.  Could something so simple be real?  He wasn’t sure.  He hadn’t had a relationship with another man since he was with Stone.  That had been completely different.  This was almost blissful in the simplicity.  There were no mind games; there were no ultimatums and requirements.  They were simply together here and now, and obviously, Ichigo was also happy to let his guard down so much in his sleep.

He sighed and found himself drifting off again.  He must have been more tired than he thought, as he slid into sleep once more.

Sometime later, Ichigo woke up slowly.  It was strange this feeling he was having.  He blinked and started to stir and felt the body he was clutching move with him.  He hummed and realized that he’d clung to Tony in his own sleep.  He smiled to himself, as he supposed that was a good sign.  Tony wasn’t rejecting him, in fact he was accepting him in whole, it seemed.  The warmth was nice, and he had to admit, for the first time in his life, he felt comfortable wrapped around someone else. 

“Are you awake?” he heard through the haze he was drifting through.

“Yeah,” Ichigo whispered blearily, rolling onto his back and sighing.  “I was tired, more than I thought.”

Tony glanced at him, and smiled.  “Yeah, me too, but that was Bruce’s fault.  I think he might have given me something to sleep.”

Ichigo finally rolled to his stomach and propped himself up on his elbows and looked at Tony seriously.  “I need to know something, Tony.  Is this going anywhere?  I know that you and Stone, that it made things different for you.  I just…I’m growing attached.  It isn’t even the soul bond or whatever it is.  I’ve never been one to follow fate blindly, so yeah.  But if you don’t think you can take this further than this…and I’d understand if you did, because of what he did…”

Tony blinked.  Was he just…did he just…did he just ask if they were going to take things further in the relationship between them?

“I don’t understand, take this further, going anywhere?” he asked.  “You…you mean you want it to go further?  Even…even though you know everything that’s happened?”

Ichigo frowned and arched a brow at him.  “Of course, _baka_.  I…I just…you’re the first person I’ve ever made this kind of connection to and it just…I don’t know.  I feel like if I don’t say something, it will just disappear.”

Tony stared for a lot longer before he rolled onto his uninjured side and frowned deeply at him.  “You know what I am.  What I’ve done, what I’ve been through, you know about what Stone did, and it doesn’t bother you?  I mean, I’ve spent my life with drugs, alcohol, women and I’m damaged.  You’ve seen how I freak the hell out over stupid shit.  You want to deal with that?”

Ichigo rolled his eyes then reached over and gently cupped one hand on Tony’s cheek.  “Why not?  Sounds like an adventure to me.”

Tony blinked and felt blood rush to two places at once and he thought it made him dizzy a bit.  He swallowed.  “I…women are different,” Tony said, eyes narrowing.  “Women, they’re not…the same…Stone and I had something I couldn’t recapture with any woman I was with.  There was a different level…deeper connection…with him, despite what he did wrong, which is why it is so hard to resist the urge to return to him.  He gave me what no one else could.”

Ichigo nodded, his thumb stroking Tony’s stubble around his goatee thoughtfully.  Tony noted that Ichigo didn’t seem to grow facial hair in this universe, more proof it was a version of his soul form.  He leaned closer and when he did Tony didn’t miss the fact that Ichigo’s eyes were blown wide.  That was something that a person couldn’t hide, Tony knew.  The signs of desire, lust, want, and longing were readily visible in both of them he realized as he let Ichigo lean closer still without moving.

“I think…I think we both want this, Tony, I…the feelings, I’m sure they’re more than what drew me here, and…” Ichigo breathed a mere inch or two from Tony’s face now.  “I just…I won’t take what isn’t given, ever.  I don’t want to go to this place we can’t return from if…if you aren’t sure…because you’re what makes me want to stay here,” he said quietly, his eyes roving Tony’s face for any sign of resistance or hesitation.  “I won’t…I won’t do anything you don’t want…ever…I can promise that and…”

Ichigo didn’t finish that thought because Tony leaned forward and connected lips with him gently.  Ichigo gasped a bit at first and then put his hand on the back of Tony’s head and pulled closer to him, bringing his body against Tony’s slowly as his lips explored Tony’s, pausing to slip his tongue out to lick at the seam gently, questioningly.  Tony parted his lips and flicked his tongue out to meet Ichigo’s and they both lost restraint at that moment.  Tony jerked back and shoved Ichigo onto his back with his uninjured arm and clambered awkwardly on top.  Tony dove down onto his mouth with a ferocity and the ensuing battle for dominance between them was to come to a draw as neither gave to the other. 

Tony, though, had the upper position, and intended to keep it as he untied Ichigo’s yukata without warning.  Ichigo made a strange sound and stared at him.  “Tony, are you sure about this, I mean…this is a bit sudden and I don’t…” he muttered but arched and moaned as Tony went down on him in short order. 

Tony was surprised how easy it was, despite being out of practice.  He ran his hand around shaft and then down below and began to test the waters by running his fingers down to Ichigo’s perineum slowly.  Instead of resisting or saying anything though, Ichigo let out an almost inhuman sound of pleasure.  Tony grinned, so he was a reluctant bottom.  This might be fun, he thought to himself.  The advantage of having experience with women, of course, was knowing very well how to use his fingers.  He sucked hard at the same time as he slipped his middle finger inside Ichigo’s warmth.  He felt Ichigo bury both hands in Tony’s hair and make another of those unusual noises.  Tony cut his eyes up and found that he was completely lost in the pleasure of what Tony was doing to him.  He moved his hand and slid his index finger inside and twisted to find that spot he was looking for.  This part he wasn’t as adept with, as he’d only ever been on the receiving end of having his prostate stimulated.  When he did feel the small bump, he stroked it several times, and found Ichigo nearly crushing his head between his legs and then going off with a near shriek into his throat.  Tony was surprised, and nearly choked, but managed to control his breath and then sat up, looking down at his disheveled partner.

Ichigo had never felt anything so intense and amazing.  He’d never thought it could possibly feel that good.  He locked eyes with Tony and swallowed.  “Wow,” he breathed. 

Tony gave him a sideways grin.  “Hmm, here I thought you were going to end up being a strict top.”

Ichigo swallowed hard.  “Guess not…” he said, still slightly dazed.

Tony smirked and crawled up beside him.  Before he could even get situated, Ichigo flipped on top of him, planting a kiss on him firmly, surprising Tony.  Most people didn’t want to kiss after oral like that, he thought, but Ichigo had no qualms, and was studiously yanking down Tony’s pajama pants.  Tony arched a bit as Ichigo’s lips left his and he kissed his way down his throat to his belly and then began licking at his cock and stroking his inner thighs with his fingers.  Tony hadn’t expected instant reciprocation, to be honest, but he wasn’t complaining as Ichigo’s warm mouth swallowed him slowly.  It was obvious that Ichigo didn’t have the experience yet, because it was a bit messy and sloppy at first before he got the hang of it.

Ichigo looked up with his eyes and then slid his hands down and began stroking around Tony’s perineum and entrance.  He wasn’t going to do anything he didn’t want.  When Tony didn’t react other than to grab Ichigo’s head and force it down more, he tried to emulate what Tony had just done.  Sliding one finger inside, he was amazed at the heat and warmth inside and tried to concentrate on two things.  However, while he was concentrating on his mouth, his fingers paused, and vice versa.  At Tony’s urging he started focusing more on what he was doing with his mouth, but he managed to slide another finger into him and explored.  Whatever Tony had done had felt amazing and he wanted Tony to feel that good, so he tried to figure out where what did it was.  Finally, he felt something hardish… 

“Fuck!” he heard Tony exclaim, the first he’d heard him use that particular vulgarity.

Ichigo thought he was going to choke him as Tony forced his head all the way down and bucked his hips into him hard.  Ichigo held on, though, feeling Tony’s body stiffen as he went over the edge.  Ichigo had a bit of trouble with that part, nearly choking again, and sputtering as he came up off Tony.  He wiped the tears out of his eyes and smiled at Tony.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to grab your head like that…” Tony said, looking a little concerned.

Ichigo shook his head.  “That’s fine, I’m fine,” he said, coughing a few more times.  “I just need more practice at that,” he said, his eyes still watering a bit.

Tony pushed himself up with his good arm and pulled Ichigo’s face over and engaged him in another kiss.  They fell together in a tangle, and if they both hadn’t been so exhausted from the day before, another round or two might have been on the agenda.  As it was, they both fell asleep with their limbs interlocked.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Steve kept glancing at the clock.  It was well after two, and Tony hadn’t emerged from his room yet.  Neither had Ichigo, for that matter.  He had a deep seated ache in his chest that he didn’t know what to do with.  After losing Bucky again, and fighting Hydra, he was lonely.  Very lonely, and lately the only people he spent any time with here the other Avengers.  Things had been moving in a strange direction since he had come back, and it had started with Natasha giving him a hard time about finding a girlfriend.  He sat at the simple desk Tony had given him.  It was beautiful rare oak, handmade, and had his shield carved in several places.  The top even lifted up so he could do his sketching easily.  He swallowed hard and took out paper again.  The sketch was forming without him even thinking about what he was sketching.  He paused and stared at it.  He picked it up, opening the drawer full of incomplete sketches.  He dropped it in on top of the others.  He wouldn’t complete them because they were never to be.  He exhaled deeply and closed the drawer slowly, and with it his less than obvious desires.

The problem was he wanted something he couldn’t have.  He had started making…overtures when he came back to the Avengers this time.  He thought at first he’d come on too strong, then he thought he was being too subtle.  He rubbed his forehead.  How could this even happen?  Maybe it was because of Howard.  Steve, back then, had fallen in love with the man nearly as much as he’d fallen in love with Peggy.  That was how he understood he could love more than one person with such ferocity that it hurt him physically.  But Howard Stark was off limits.  First he was a man, and it was the forties.  Second, he was not interested, he was sure.  This had been a problem of a skinny little kid who was in love with his best friend when he was younger. 

Times were different now, though.  It wasn’t wrong anymore for a man to fall in love with another man, or even more than one person, though that was less acceptable.  Then, Steve found himself confused and hurt when the object of his affection would run from him at every turn, sometimes visibly breaking down.  He hadn’t _done_ anything to Tony.  Why would he be afraid of him?  Why would he do that?  He sighed again, twirling the pencil around thoughtfully.  He’d used the internet to find out how to woo another, and he sort of regretting going against his gut on some things.  He’d tried showing himself as the very dominate and authoritarian type, and that was met with disaster.  He’d tried being forward, but as he got closer, Tony stepped away.  He’d tried being super protective, especially in the field, but then he came off as being bossy.  He simply wasn’t good at this sort of thing.

There was a knock at the door and he looked up.  “Enter,” he called.

“Steve?” Natasha’s voice.

“In the drawing room,” he called.

She came back and sat down beside him.  “So what’s with the long face?” she asked. 

Steve shook his head.  “I’m a little down at the moment, is all,” he said.

“Oh really?” she said, jumping past him and pulling open the drawer he’d just closed. 

“No, don’t!  Natasha!” he pleaded, but it was too late, she had the pile of sketches and was thumbing through them.

She held the newest one up.   “Steve, you still are sketching him, have you tried to talk to him?”

“You know as well as I do that I can’t,” he said, looking away from her.  “I can’t go there, especially not now.  He’s afraid of me, he’s scared, Natasha, and I don’t know why, and I’ve tried everything to get him to see.”

Natasha put the sketches back, staring a long moment at the latest one, Tony’s face frozen in a laugh.  “You kind of suck at this, you know,” she said.  “Tony’s blunt, and you danced around it.”

Steve shook his head.  “It doesn’t matter.  You’ve seen the two of them.  Ichigo is good for him.  He makes him happy, and I can’t ever come between that.  If I care about him, I have to let it go.  I want him to be happy.”

Natasha sighed, nodding slowly.  “Alright, Steve.  I’m sorry it can’t be otherwise,” she said.

Steve smiled. “Ichigo came from a different universe, maybe somewhere out there, Tony and I are together,” he said and looked out the window again.  It was a pleasant thought.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Stone had things set up easily enough.  He was going to get his hands on Tony, and get rid of that nuisance of a brat this time.  The plan had been relatively easy to set up.  He had no plans, of course, on keeping his end of the bargain.  Once he got Tony in his grasp, he would be done, and Hydra was on its own.  The operation was easy enough.  The Avengers had been in a major skirmish two days before, making them more vulnerable than usual.  The plan was to have Hydra lure them into attacking an outpost with rumors of what they were looking for, and then Stone would launch his attack with his robotic attackers.  There would be enough of his robots to trigger the Shinigami, whatever that was supposed to be, to enact his most powerful abilities, and be removed from battle.  Hydra would then attack with their own people while the Avengers were minus one.  Of course, Stone’s plan was to destroy him, and grab an incapacitated Tony Stark.  Then he’d leave Hydra to deal with the remaining Avengers.

The plan was fool proof.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

“No!” Ichigo said, both hands planted firmly on his hips.  “You are _not_ going out on this call.”

Everyone else had frozen in place in the common area.  They’d just gotten a call in for a possible location on the staff, and they needed to move on it.  Tony still wasn’t cleared by Bruce for going back out.  He was insisting that he could handle it in the suit.  To everyone’s shock, it wasn’t Steve that put his foot down.  It was Ichigo.

“I’m fine!” Tony said, standing as tall as he could make himself despite being a couple inches shorter than Ichigo.  “I will be perfectly safe inside the suit, it offers protection and a buffer zone…” he started, trying to slip around Ichigo, who flashed between him and the elevator, arms locked over his chest. 

“No,” he commented, glaring at Tony with a look of pure annoyance.  “Look, I can handle anything they throw at me, and you need to heal, not put your ass on the line right away.  I simply am not going to let you.”

The others were waiting for an inevitable explosion from Tony.  Instead he rolled his eyes and sighed.  “Fine.  Get Rhodey to take this one, he can use my regular suit, War Machine isn’t fitted yet against that new Jericho missile they’re using.”

Ichigo nodded, then smirked.  “I was hoping you’d see reason.”

“You’re going to see reason, trust me,” Tony said, glaring at him in return.

“You can try,” Ichigo said, turning and walking away looking rather smug.

No one really knew what had just happened, but a few minutes later, they were all in route, meeting War Machine at the location where he’d switch into the Mark forty two that Tony had outfitted with a system for handling the new Jerichos that these bastards had.  They didn’t expect the nearly invisible robots they’d encountered before.

“What the hell?” Ichigo yelled as he was slammed out of midair into the ground by something he didn’t see.

“Hey, kid, there’s something there!” Rhodey yelled.  “I can see them on the screen in here!”

“Tony installed new sensors for these cloaked bastards,” Steve yelled into the com and felt one clang onto his shield.  “Why are they at a Hydra facility?  Tony said they weren’t Hydra tech!”

Clint flipped down the eyepiece Tony had put together for him to compensate for the cloaking systems.  “Natasha, use the eye piece!  You can see them plain as day!” he called into his com as he exploded one in a shower of sparks.

She nodded, feeling like a pirate or Fury as she put on the patch while dodging two of them.  Steve wasn’t able to get to his, though.  “Code Green!” she called into the com.  It didn’t take long for Hulk to come running into the fray and taking on the things one on one.  Finally, between Natasha and Ichigo, they managed to clear Steve long enough for him to use the eye piece to see the things.

“Remember, don’t let them hit you!” he reminded them.

“Holy fucking…” Ichigo muttered as one slammed right into his shoulder, shattering the bones.

Steve sighed and shook his head.  “I said don’t let them hit you!” he yelled again, one of them clanging off his shield.

“I know that, dammit!” Ichigo shouted, the thin sword easily holding off the arm of the one he was fighting. 

It seemed a similar battle until Ichigo felt something slam into him from the front and the back.  Things slowed down for a moment because he realized he’d been shot.  Several times.  He glanced down and saw several bullets explode from his chest outward.  In bankai, they seemed slow, he realized.  Of course, to the others, Ichigo’s chest and back exploded in a cloud of red from muffled shots.

“We have snipers!” Clint yelled, realizing that they were hidden so well that he hadn’t even noticed them until they fired.  It looked like they’d all fired on Ichigo, too.

Ichigo dropped to his knee, still holding his sword up and panted, drawing Shiro to the surface with a guttural growl, leaping up and eviscerating the robot that he’d been holding off.  White foam forced out of every wound, and it almost looked like he was covered in it for a moment.  A few minutes and the robots were done, but there was a short quiet.  Ichigo panted, feeling exhaustion growing as he looked around and saw someone step out and throw a grenade of some sort at Rhodey.  He leaped toward it but there was a stunning force that shot from it, knocking everyone flat to the ground.  A moment later, Ichigo stumbled to his feet and got over to where Rhodey had fallen to find him sitting, face mask ripped off, looking very confused.

“What happened?” Ichigo asked, not seeing whoever had thrown it.

Rhode shook his head.  “Some guy in a mask pulled off the faceplate and then punched me.  He just left.”

Ichigo teetered.  Rhodey got up and put a hand on him.  “Hey let’s get you to the quinjet.”

“Yeah, I’m not going to be vertical much longer,” he said then looked up in time to see something coming toward them.  “Duck!” he yelled at Rhodey and something impacted in Ichigo’s chest. 

It exploded, taking most of Ichigo’s chest with it and blasting Rhodey well out of the way.  He felt the instant regeneration trigger, thankfully, and as soon as his body stitched back together, he fell forward onto the ground, losing consciousness and White’s form.

Rhodey collected himself just in time to see that Steve and the others were fighting off another force that had come in from the north, and before he could react, he saw a pair of Hydra agents grabbing Ichigo and heading toward a four wheeler.  He tried to shoot, but the first attack had been an EMP that countered Tony’s protections on the suit.

“They’ve got Ichigo!” he yelled into the com.  “I’m disabled!”

“What?” Steve returned, but couldn’t disengage.  “Go help him!”

No one could help, though, and by the time they’d managed to get there, they were long gone, and they had no idea where they’d taken him.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

“Stone tried to betray us,” Ichigo heard piercing the haze in his head.

“Tried, of course.  Why did he want this subject dead so badly?” a second voice spoke.  Ichigo recognized both had German accents. 

“I’m unsure, he tried to get to Iron Man, but something was wrong and he abandoned the field.  It matters not, we have the subject.  He’ll prove most useful to our experiments, even more than the twins,” the first voice said, and Ichigo blinked wearily and lifted his head.  Something was wrong, he felt like his body weighed a ton.

He felt someone grip his chin and lift his face up.  He looked a white haired man that was grinning at him.  “Good, you’re awake,” he said.

“Wha…wha…you…do…me…” he gasped out, almost unable to form words.

“Well, after some extensive study, we’ve found that you share some attributes of something called an inhuman.  We aren’t sure how, since you are not one of their people.  You will definitely yield some interesting results with that regenerative capability you have,” he said, turning Ichigo’s face left and right.  “No scars, yet the video showed nearly your entire torso and half your face was obliterated by the blast.  Fascinating.”

The man dropped his face and turned his back on him.  “Continue administering the suppressants, see if you can identify the mechanism for regeneration.  We want this for our people, don’t fail me.  We haven’t had a viable regenerator since that woman.  I’d suggest severing limbs at some point in the experiments, find out how far the regeneration goes, and what happens to a severed limb once it is separate from the body.”

Ichigo’s heart was in his ears.  What were they doing?  They were talking about him like he was a lab rat or something.  He swung his head a bit and saw he was strapped to an upright table of some sort, stripped of his clothes and several IV lines running into his arms.

The second man, a much younger man, came into his view.  “This will be a painful process, and you will die eventually.  Know that your sacrifice will be one of the noblest sort.”

Ichigo’s eyes went wide as the younger man brought down a machine with a small saw at the tip of it.  He smiled at Ichigo.  “Shall we begin?” he said.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Tony sat straight up in his bed, soaked in sweat.  The team had been gone two days, and he knew something was wrong.  There was a deep sense of foreboding and something twisting in his gut. 

“JARVIS, team status?” he asked.

“Team is en route.  They should arrive within the hour,” JARVIS intoned.

Tony got out of bed, missing Ichigo’s help with his arm casted, but he managed.  He found got down to the common room and wanted to look like he was unconcerned.  He really did.  However, when the team came in missing Ichigo, that plan evaporated.

“Where is he?” he asked, standing up and walking toward Steve.

Steve shook his head.  “I’m…I’m sorry, I…we tried to find him, but…”

“Tried to find him?” he asked.  He frowned, grabbing the tablet and punching up the feed from the suit.

Tony sat down on the sofa and watched the events unfold from Rhodey’s point of view, and nearly dropped the tablet when the external camera caught Stone pulling the faceplate off Rhodey.  He’d been there?  He had worked with Hydra?  And now Ichigo was in their clutches?

“I thought the EMP fried the suit’s sensors,” Rhodey said as he sat down, watching the scenes that he’d only viewed with his eyes.

“It did, but the exterior camera is in a small, extra protective box that activates when the rest of the suit goes offline.  It wasn’t active when the EMP went off, it was designed to start recording when the suit is shut down like that,” Tony explained. 

“What do they want with him?” Tony asked, looking up at the others.

Natasha sighed.  “As near as we can tell, they’ve been kidnapping and experimenting on inhumans, as they call themselves.  Natural gifted people.  They might want Ichigo for his regeneration or his speed.”

“So he’s not dead,” Tony said, standing and looking around.  “We can save him, right?”

There was an uncomfortable silence.  Finally, Steve spoke up.  “Tony, look what they did to Bucky.  Even if he lives, he won’t be the same when we find him again,” he said quietly, actually sorry to have to say it.  “I know you care about him, but there’s nothing we can do for him.  We have to find the scepter; we can’t go in a different direction and look for him.”

Tony’s jaw clenched and he nodded slowly.  It wasn’t that he agreed with Steve, it was that he knew that Ichigo wouldn’t want him to give up their mission to chase after him.  It didn’t mean he would stop looking, though.  He would still try. 

“We’ll find the scepter, and then we’ll find Ichigo.  I won’t leave him to die at their hands,” Tony said finally, turning and walking to the elevator.  He needed to work on the suit.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

INTERLUDE:  AGE OF ULTRON


	8. Reunion in Paris

Post Age of Ultron

November 2015

 

“Sir,” Friday spoke up from the overhead. 

Tony still missed hearing JARVIS, but there was something wrong about having the AI share the voice that the Vision had been given, so he kept Friday.  He sighed and looked up.

“What is it?” he asked.

“We’ve got a hit on your special project, sir,” she said and Tony was up and on his feet before the AI got done.

“What? Where?” he asked.

An auction advertisement came up on the screen.  An overly large, thin, black bladed sword was listed on a special sale in a large specialty auction house in Paris, France.  Before he’d even finished reading the information, he’d sent word to his air field to get his plane ready.  He paused and caught his breath.  For the first time in months, he’d gotten something. 

Tony hadn’t ignored Ichigo’s absence at all; in fact, he searched for him with the same amount of fervor that he had searched for the staff.  Everyone on the team knew Tony never stopped looking, not for one moment.  Even while he was helping bust down bunkers they thought the scepter was in, they all knew he was hoping to find Ichigo being held in one of them.  It was unspoken, of course, and no one mentioned their missing number.  Tony hid it well, never spoke of it, and never acted as though he was bothered.  Even when Bruce left them on his own again, and Thor went home, no one mentioned him. 

Part of the team’s worries was to do with the fact that they feared Tony would slide into that bad space he’d been in before.  He’d started getting along with Steve extremely well, and it seemed like whatever problem there had been, it was simply gone.  Clint and Natasha caught the sideways comments now and then though, the resentment that Tony had built up because Steve hadn’t saved Ichigo.  It was unspoken, but Steve blamed himself, and no matter how hard he tried, Tony blamed him as well. 

The entire time, even during the whole Ultron incident, Tony had programs running in the background that were looking for signs of Ichigo’s presence.  Wherever they had taken him was well hidden, even more so than the stupid scepter, mind stone, mind gem, whatever the hell it was.  After all, Ichigo had something they wanted desperately.  An incredible rate of instant regeneration.  Surely, he wouldn’t be dead…surely.

His sword in an auction in Paris, however, didn’t bode well.  Tony knew that he wouldn’t be separated from that sword for a moment if he had a choice.  Something had happened, and he had to find out what it was quickly.  It didn’t take long for him to arrive at a high dollar auction house where the sword was on display.  He had thought briefly about calling the team, but wondered what they could do.  Steve was training the newest members to work together, and Clint and Natasha were helping.  Thor was gone, and Bruce was who knew where.  Tony felt very alone, actually, but he hadn’t wanted to stay around the others after the destruction he had caused.  If he could fix one thing, he was going to try and find Ichigo.

He had come alone.  Happy and Pepper had gotten together at some point, he didn’t even know when, but he was happy for them.  She deserved someone not completely messed up like Tony Stark. 

As he expected, attention fell on him when he entered.  Several people started muttering.  It was a good thing he spoke French, he supposed, since the auctioneer was speaking French.  He sat through tons of mundane and expensive items that the old Tony Stark would have wanted.  He didn’t care about any of them.  Then, they wheeled out a glass box with Ichigo’s sword in it.  Tony sat up as the bidding started going up.  He waited until the first round when the bidding stopped going up at a hundred thousand euros.

“Two hundred thousand,” he announced. 

Everyone turned and stared at him for a second.  Doubling the high bid was rare.  It happened, though.  “Two hundred thousand to Tony Stark…” the auctioneer said, and a couple more people bid to bring it up to two hundred ten thousand.  Tony sighed.  “Five hundred thousand,” he announced.  He didn’t want to waste time with this.  Not surprisingly, there were no more bids.

“Thank you, Mr. Stark, the money will be put to good use,” the cashier said.

“Where did this sword come from?” he asked, looking at it.

“I’m afraid the person that donated wanted to remain anonymous, but I will warn you, one reason it was priced so low is that it has some dangerous properties.  We don’t recommend touching the blade, we believe it carries a poison,” he said.

Tony finished paying and lifted the glass of the top and picked up the sword easily by the handle.  The power thrummed through his hand and he smiled.  He moved and placed his hand flat on the blade.  He could hear the people around him calling for him to stop, that it was dangerous, but he didn’t hear them because he was standing on the side of a building ankle deep in water.

He looked up and saw thunderous clouds pouring rain.  “Hello?” he called.

A moment later, a white streak came towards him and nearly knocked him over.  “Oh, kami thank you,” the white version of Ichigo gasped as he grabbed Tony.  “Tell me you came to take us back to Ichigo, please…we’re drowning in here…” he said, pushing Tony back.

“I will, I promise.  What happened?” he said.

Shiro shook his head.  “He locked it up in his head.  I don’t know, I don’t remember, hurry, please,” he said and faded into the air. 

Tony blinked and looked around to see people gathered as he pulled his palm from the blade and looked at them.  “Who brought it here?”

“I told you…”

Tony took out a photo, one of Ichigo and his sword.  “This is stolen, and I just donated five hundred thousand euros in exchange for it.  Now, where did it come from?”

An hour later, Tony stood with the sword wrapped in a sheet and strapped to his back outside a country villa.  His stomach was in his throat because it was a mental institution.  He went in and saw that it was a very nice institution, but still.

“Excuse me, I understand you have a patient here, he looks like this,” he said to the receptionist handing her Ichigo’s photo.

“Oh my, yes, we do.  We’ve been calling him Red because of his hair, but yes, he’s a catatonic schizophrenic.  Are you friend or family?” she asked.

Tony swallowed.  “He’s…he’s um…my partner,” he said, a slight red rushing to his face, and he pulled out a picture of them together to show that they were close.  The lady smiled, then frowned at the picture, looking up at him.  The photo showed Tony in a tank top with the reactor bright under the white tank and Ichigo holding his hand.

“Wait, you’re Tony Stark, aren’t you?” she asked, eyes going wide.

“Yes, please, can I see him?” he said, growing nervous.  “He’s been missing a long time, and…”

“Please, let me get his doctor,” she said, and went into the office. 

A moment later, a man came out with a wreathe of white hair around his head.  He smiled.  “Good day, Mr. Stark.  I am Dr. Mousseau.  You are Red’s significant other?” he asked.

Tony nodded.  “Not officially, but…yeah.”

“Come with me, Mr. Stark.  Before you see him, I’d like to let you know what’s happened to him.  I assume you can prove you know him?” he said as they entered a small conference room.

“I brought some pictures, but that’s all I have, he doesn’t have any other family,” Tony said, sitting down.  How Ichigo carries such a huge bloody sword he had no idea.

“Mr. Stark, normally we require more identification to release information, but your friend is likely not going to improve. If you wish him to leave here, to go back near to where you live, he’ll have to be transferred to another facility,” he said gently.

“I don’t understand, what happened?” he asked.

“Your friend was found wandering in a nearby wooded area in June this year.  He was dragging a large black sword, and completely naked and unresponsive to anyone.  The local authorities brought him here for an evaluation, and physically he was in perfect health, but he was in a state of complete catatonia.  He has to have twenty four hour care.  He’s sedated at night because he seems to have some sort of night terrors and we found he has abnormally increased strength, most likely from extra adrenaline, and he injured a few orderlies in his first week here.  I think he would be best left here, and not moved, as he seems soothed by the countryside.  So, with that in mind, do you still wish to see him?” the doctor asked gently.

“I want to see him,” Tony said with a nod of his head.

“Very well, but do not expect any response,” Dr. Mousseau warned and took him to a large courtyard.

Tony’s heart leapt to his throat because there was no mistaking that head of fiery orange hair.  He walked slowly over to where he sat in a wheelchair, facing the vineyards.  He felt the doctor following behind him.  He went around in front of him and knelt down.  Ichigo’s eyes were wide and vacant.  Tony’s hopes were slowly dying because he didn’t know anything about what had caused this.

“Ichigo?” he asked. 

Ichigo’s big brown eyes blinked a couple times.  “Please, Mr. Stark, don’t expect too much of him…” the doctor warned.

“Ichigo, it’s Tony, and I brought you Zangetsu,” he said, reaching behind him and pulling the wrapped sword off his back.  He laid the bundle on Ichigo’s lap and pulled the sheet back.

“Mr. Stark!  Is that the sword he had?  You cannot have that here!” the doctor gasped.

Tony glared at him.  “You took it away from him and gave it to an auction house, no wonder he’s catatonic,” he told him. 

The doctor stopped and frowned at him.  “What do you mean?”

Tony took Ichigo’s hands, which were lying limply in his lap and placed the flat of both of them on the bare blade.  The doctor looked about to run off for help.  “Ichi, baby, come on.  Feel him, he’s there, in your lap.  He’s right there.   Feel Zangetsu.  Let him speak to you…Shiro’s worried too, he even hugged me…”

“What are you trying to accomplish?” the doctor demanded.

“Do you not understand?” Tony snapped at him.  “He’s not human, idiot!”

The doctor shook his head.  “What?  He’s human…”

“Did you even run a DNA test?” Tony muttered as he felt Ichigo’s fingers twitching on the blade. 

“Of course, the results were inconclusive…” the doctor muttered.

“Yeah, they would be, he’s not freaking human, he’s one of the damn Avengers, just without his mask,” Tony muttered as Ichigo’s head lolled backward suddenly.  Tony stood up and backed away a pace from him.  “Step back, doc, not sure what he’s doing…” he muttered.

A second passed and his head dropped down.  When his eyes opened, though, Tony knew it wasn’t Ichigo.  His eyes were black and gold.  “Shiro?” Tony asked.  “Why are you in control?”

Shiro blinked, his voice higher than Ichigo’s and slightly grating.  “Oh, fucking hell, king what the fuck did you do to us this time,” he said standing up and rolling his head over his shoulders.  “The fuck kind of drug shit is in here,” he muttered, and turned his gaze on the doctor.  “No wonder king can’t fucking think straight, you assholes have him doped up.”

The doctor was just staring in disbelief at him.  Shiro glanced down and shook his head at the hospital gown.  He concentrated for a moment and his shihakuso appeared, replacing it.  It was the black one, and the only indication it wasn’t Ichigo was the odd eye coloration. 

“Yo, Tony, can we ditch this place, this is fucking boring as death, and I should know,” he said, glaring at the doctor.  “Gonna take at least a whole day to burn out these drugs, fuck man,” he muttered, twirling the sword around a few times. 

“I don’t…I don’t understand,” the doctor said in English.  Luckily, Shiro had used English, and it seemed the doctor also knew English. 

“I’m not fucking human, asshole!” Shiro said, rolling his black and gold eyes. 

By now there was quite a gathering of nurses and security since a patient was swinging a big sword around.  Tony was happy at least he was somewhat aware, even if it was Shiro.  The guards were trying to move in, so of course, Shiro had to mess with them, flash stepping around them all and handcuffing them to each other and appearing beside Tony again.  “Come on Tony boy, I’m dying to actually get a chance to fuck you since King never got that far,” he said and grabbed Tony’s body against him and flashed away, leaving a bunch of very stunned and confused mental health professionals behind him.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Tony found himself back in his tower a few moments later, amazed at the speed at which Ichigo, or not Ichigo, Shiro, moved.  There was a whirling sensation and he was staring up at Ichigo who was kneeling over him on his bed.  Tony blinked rapidly for a moment, his brain trying to catch up with what was happening.  He felt Ichigo’s hand slide down the front of his slacks and started realizing that Shiro had been serious.

“Hey, wait a minute, stop that!” Tony said, grabbing at Shiro’s arm. 

Shiro cut his eyes up and grinned.  “What Tony?  Don’t you wanna?”

“No, stop it, you aren’t Ichigo!” he said, eyes wide.

Shiro paused and looked at him.  “Of course I am.  We’re the same person,” he said, before unbuttoning Tony’s pants, despite his attempts to swat his hands away.

“No!” Tony said, slapping him across the face to get his attention.  “Look, I said no, so stop it, I need to figure out what to do to get Ichigo back from wherever he is in there!”

Shiro lunged forward, pinning Tony down with the rest of his body, twining his legs around his and nibbling on his neck lightly.  “But Tony, maybe this will get him back…” he muttered against Tony’s collarbone.  “I mean, come on, he wants to fuck you really badly, so I bet he’ll decide to join the party,” Shiro said, sliding his hand back down Tony’s front again.  Tony couldn’t but let out a moan as his body responded to Shiro’s insistent touches.

“But…you aren’t him…I want….” Tony’s mind was quickly getting lost to the fact he was looking at Ichigo.  He looked like him, smelled like him, felt like him…then he locked eyes with him.  It wasn’t Ichigo in control.

“No!” Tony said, shoving him up harder this time.  “Get off me, Shiro!”

Shiro sighed and rolled off onto his back.  “Dammit,” he muttered, glaring at Tony.  “You couldn’t let me do you while I’m in control, huh?  Fuck.”

Tony looked at him.  “I don’t know you!”

Shiro shrugged.  “Suppose I can go find a whore…” he said finally.

“No!  You aren’t going around in his body having sex randomly!” Tony said, frowning.

“You’re just no fun,” Shiro said, sighing deeply.  “Whatever.  So what do you want to do?”

Tony stood up and buttoned his pants back up, quelling the hard on he’d gotten during their tussling on the bed.  “How do I get Ichigo back?”

Shiro sighed.  “Well, I’d say you could go in and get him.  But there’s going to be a flood of memories he doesn’t want to come back, and you’re going to get them too if you’re in there.”

“I’ll do it,” Tony said.

Shiro glanced at him sideways.  “Tony, you already have issues.  This is gonna make them worse.  I promise you that.  What they did to him…I can only see bits of it, but it makes what you went through look tame.”

“I don’t care, I want him back,” Tony insisted.

Shiro sighed.  “Here,” he said, picking up the blade and sitting cross-legged on the bed.  “Sit knee to knee with me like this, then we’ll lay the sword over our knees.  And you’ll follow me in.”

After they got in position, Shiro took Tony’s hands and placed them flat on the blade, then places his on top of them.  It took a moment but the pulling sensation sucked them both into the rain soaked inner world.  Shiro stood in his white visage and nodded. 

“He’s in here somewhere.  Up to you to find him,” he said, and flashed into the distance.

“Wait!  How do I find him?” he called, having no idea how he was supposed to do this.

He looked around, trying to see something, anything, that would indicate where he could have gone.  He saw something familiar in the distance.  Wait, that sort of looked like the deck on the side of his tower sticking up out of the water.  Could that be where he was?  He dove, feeling strange swimming through water that wasn’t water but some sort of psychic representation of the interior of Ichigo’s subconscious, as messed up as that sounded.  He felt a pull, a strange sensation and he looked down to see a thin red cord slowly manifesting at his chest and extending through the water.  The Red String of Fate?  He followed it, wondering what exactly that meant.  The thread was thin, and as he grew closer to the submerged version of his own building, he saw it was frayed and loose in several places.  There was no way that was a good thing, he thought to himself as he slipped through a window into the building.

The closer he got to what he felt was the end of the thread, the more frayed it became.  There were places that were linked by almost translucent threads now.  Whatever they had done to him had frayed this fate thing, he thought as he came to a door.  His workshop…where it all began.  He opened the door and found something that sent him into a near panic.

Ichigo was indeed in the room.  In the center was a tilt table where he was strapped down.  His chest was slit open from collarbone to the top of his pubic bone, the breastbone was completely removed, lying beside the tilt table, and his heart and lungs were visible and working open to the air.  Lines ran in and out of his arms and his head was held up by a band over his forehead.  Blood dripped down his cheeks from empty eye sockets, and his left arm had been removed at the shoulder.  He was a alive though, despite the horrid condition he was apparently in.  Tony stepped forward and then watched as white foam dripped from his left arm, receding, replaced with a new limb.  The same white foam emerged from his empty eyes and when it receded, his eyes were there again, open, yet blank.  The foam started bubbling up from inside his chest cavity, showing a healed body when it receded. 

“Ichigo!” Tony said, taking another step, but then hearing a soul shredding scream and Tony watched in horror as his body was ripped apart again right before him by invisible hands.  Then the foaming returned, and it all began again.

Tony had no idea what to do.  He had to break him out of this nightmare, but how was he supposed to do that?  He was reliving what Hydra had done to him, over and over as he watched.  Tony had no concept of time as he watched as different pieces of his body were cut away, only to grow back.  It was all he could do to not run from what he was watching.  Had Hydra really done this to him?  Had they really dissected his body while he was alive?  He was disgusted and horrified and so many things.

He looked down and saw that the red string was unraveling before his very eyes.  Somehow, he realized that Ichigo’s presence in this very universe was in danger if their link was broken.  Their link, that small string that reached across entire universes, and he was watching it fray into millions of strands.  He had no idea what to do.

“You must do what you want to do the least,” came a deep voice behind him. 

He turned to see that the visage that Ichigo called Zangetsu, the man with the black hair, stood behind him, his hair and clothes blowing in the nonexistent breeze around them.  “What do you mean?”

“You are watching his horror, but you are not feeling it.  He is lost in himself, trapped in an eternity of pain and blood.  If that string of fate is severed, he’ll remain lost, and both Shiro and I will disappear entirely.  He will become a shell, nothing more.  He’ll never die, his body regenerating constantly, but he will never live, either.  He will be trapped in the hell you see here for all eternity,” he said.  “You must do what will hurt you most.  You must join him in his pain, share the burden he bears.”

Tony looked back at him, shivering as the skin on his arms flayed itself off revealing the muscles beneath.  He had to…share that?  The foam returned, showing pristine undamaged arms as it left.  “How?” he asked, his heart thrumming in his chest. 

There was no choice.  He wouldn’t, he couldn’t, let that happen to Ichigo.  He didn’t know how, he didn’t know why, but this spirited, young and remarkable man had taken the pieces of Tony Stark and held them together for the first time.  He was the only person that didn’t care about Tony’s money.  He was the only person that didn’t care about Tony’s power.  He only cared about Tony, and chose to stay beside him when the truth was no one could conceivably stop him from leaving to go wherever he wanted. 

“You know how already, Tony,” the deep voice reverberated in his head and when he looked, Zangetsu was gone.

Tony chewed his lip again, but he saw a strand break away from the thin thread between them. No, he had to do this.  This wasn’t his pain, this was Ichigo’s pain.  He was doing this because he wanted to do this, not because anyone was forcing him to do it.  This was something beyond what had happened to him, this was more.  This was his heart and soul trying to tell him that the world was more than what was visible.  No, he knew exactly what to do.

Tony moved swiftly, standing in front of Ichigo where he was strapped to the tilt table.  “Give it to me, Ichigo, please,” Tony said, placing both hands on Ichigo’s face, trying not to cringe as the flesh of his cheeks peeled away under his fingers.  “Please, Ichigo, let me share your pain, now and forever.  I never said it before, I was afraid to even think it.  You tried to help me, to move past the pain that I felt, the things I needed, and you did it.  You changed me.  No, please, let me help you, I can handle it, because it is your pain, and not my own.”

Ichigo’s eyes turned downward and locked onto Tony’s for the first time, and Tony felt something like a deep pulling at his chest and he knew that the red thread was trying to fray apart, but there was something stopping it this time.  “I love you, Ichigo, so let me share your pain,” Tony said, pushing himself up on his toes and pressing his lips against Ichigo’s.

The next sensation was a blast of excruciating agony that had no real source, it was simply everywhere.  Tony held on, and felt the world swim and spin and he realized he could feel Ichigo’s hands on him now, their bodies twining together in some sort of dark void.  Tony wanted to scream as emotions that didn’t belong to him flooded him.  Sadness, depression, betrayal, hurt, disgust, so many things, but the one thing that made Tony almost let go was disappointment.  It was disappointment that Tony hadn’t come for him.  It was disappointment and fear that Tony didn’t love him, didn’t care.  It was soul searing with the fury and anger that came up beside that fear, and Tony knew what had frayed the thread between them.  Ichigo had lost faith completely in everything, in Tony, in himself, and the thread was degrading as it happened.  Ichigo felt that Tony had abandoned him completely.  That alone made Tony’s heart want to explode into a million shattered pieces.

No, he thought, he was going to hold on to him, no matter how much it hurt as the pain and emotion washed over him.  He wasn’t going to let go of him, not ever again.  He let go of his own tightly controlled emotional control and let Ichigo’s soul absorb what had occurred in his absence.  Tony let him feel the complete worthlessness he’d nearly succumbed to.  He let him feel the desperation with which he searched, the annoyance at the Ultron incident forcing his search to pause.  He let Ichigo into everything he had locked up.  The emotions and visions and thoughts began to swirl together, and finally, one thing slammed into both of them.  The shared desperation to find each other was there, nothing would stop them from finding each other.  There was something more visceral than they could ever imagine; it was a primal thing. 

Their spiritual bodies were so intertwined it was impossible to tell where one ended and the other began.  Heart to heart, soul to soul, there wasn’t a whisper’s breath between the two of them.  Pain and pleasure and love and hate, it all became one thing and was a force of nature within each of them, but it united them.  The entanglement began and ended with the red string of fate, binding them together and bringing a blinding reality to both of them.

All was laid bare.  Past, present, and future all converged at one point in space and time.  There were no secrets between them, for they were laid open.  There were no empty spaces, for they were all filled with the other’s soul.  Everything spun out of control in a vision of complex stars and galaxies.  Time slowed down and sped up and then the world imploded at the very beginning of time.

Tony felt the sudden, dropping sensation coming on, and he reached for Ichigo and held tightly to him.  He wasn’t letting him go, not again, never again.  Another flare of bright light and Tony felt something under his hands, and he knew that it was real.  Tony’s vision slowly cleared and he was staring across at Ichigo’s bowed head, the sword still across their knees.

“Ichigo?” he whispered.  Had it worked?  Had he fixed things?  Had he brought him back?

Ichigo lifted his head and his eyes opened slowly, revealing twin, deep, pools of brown.  “Tony…” he said slowly, his eyes blinking sluggishly.  “That…that was real…you were there…and…”

Tony nodded, not moving yet.  “It was real.  Ichigo, I found you, and I came as soon as I did, I’m sorry I couldn’t find you sooner,” he said, not sure if Ichigo would even want him now that he had come for him.

Ichigo glanced down at himself, realizing he was wearing the shredded remains of his shihakuso.  He picked at the kusodo and then shrugged out of it.  He knew it would repair by the next day.  He removed Zangetsu from their knees and swallowed hard against the ball that had risen in his throat.  He locked eyes with Tony. 

“I need you, Tony, I need…I need…” he said, a rising blush appearing on his cheeks.

Tony smiled, sitting up on his knees and putting one hand on Ichigo’s cheek.  “I know,” he said, and pressed his lips against Ichigo’s gently, not sure how he was going to react.  Ichigo’s hands moved faster than he expected though and grabbed Tony’s face and flipped him onto his back, his tongue slipping between Tony’s slack lips.  Tony let him dominate the kiss, he let him have every inch of him that he wanted, no that he needed. 

Ichigo’s hands ripped the t-shirt apart he was wearing and before long both of them had shed their clothes completely, bodies trying to reclaim the closeness that had felt in the spiritual encounter they’d shared.  Tony didn’t mind, for the first time in his life, he was truly laid bare for someone and by his own choice.  He wanted Ichigo to have him, every part of him, heart, soul, body, everything.  Ichigo needed Tony more than he had needed anything in his life as his teeth sunk into Tony’s collarbone, leaving a light mark before he sucked a deeper one at the point his collarbones met.  He needed to prove he was still alive, despite feeling like he was dying every second of every day for the last few months.

“Ichi, I don’t know if I’ll be able to wait,” Tony moaned, his cock already pressing into Ichigo’s belly.  The spiritual experience had done something to both of them, and they couldn’t stop.  It was as though their spirits had converged, and now their physical bodies needed to do the same. 

“Tony, I love you,” Ichigo whispered against Tony’s neck as he hefted the other man up into his arms and straddling his lap, his own arousal hard against Tony’s now.  “I need to be inside you, now,” he said, sucking again at his neck as one hand slid down and he worked an insistent finger inside him. Tony winced, feeling him trying to speed the preparation.  It would hurt, Tony knew that, they didn’t have anything ready for this, he hadn’t expected to have him back so soon, but he didn’t complain as Ichigo’s other fingers joined the first, working him open even without lube to ease it.  Tony didn’t care.  The pain would only last a moment, and he wasn’t going to wait any more than Ichigo was.

Ichigo moved fast, like always, his fingers sliding out and gripping Tony’s hip as he shifted and slid Tony down onto him in what seemed like one smooth move.  Tony gasped, tossing his head back and his legs flexing around Ichigo’s waist.  Damn, that hurt more than he’d liked, he thought, but Ichigo held him still, face buried in Tony’s chest, hands gripping his ass hard enough that Tony was sure he’d have crescent shaped indentions there from his nails.

“Ah, oh God, that hurts a bit,” Tony said finally.  His hands clenched at Ichigo’s shoulders for a few moments as they sat quietly for the pain to ease.  Finally Tony rolled his hips a little.  “Move, move…” he gasped out, and Ichigo complied, tipping Tony back onto the bed and holding him around his waist as he slowly worked himself in and out in a slow and steady rhythm.  The position brought Tony’s hips up more, and made hitting his prostate dead on easier.

Tony remembered sex as never being truly pleasurable.  Not really, even with women, he was unsatisfied.  But now, he felt Ichigo, every part of him, touching him, embracing him, filling him and completing him in more ways than he could comprehend.  He held tightly, and he felt his own nails digging into Ichigo’s back.  He felt dampness as he knew blood was flowing down his back, but Ichigo didn’t seem to mind in the least as he shifted to a faster rhythm, doing his best to slide right against Tony’s sweet spot.

“Oh, ah…” Tony said, eyes wide.  “I’m going…” he muttered, but Ichigo moved one of his hands and grabbed Tony around the base of his leaking member.  He groaned in pain and pleasure, eyes rolling up.  “Oh fuck,” he muttered, arching his back against the sensation.  Ichigo held him and leaned over and sucked a mark on his neck again before moving up to run his tongue over the shell of his ear. 

“Wait…wait…” Ichigo whispered in his ear as he slowed down again, undulating his hips and pulling Tony’s hips up higher. 

Tony practically yelped as the slight change gave Ichigo a perfect position to ram directly into his prostate, and Tony felt the leaking fluids from his cock dripping down between his legs and making the bed damp under him.  It was ecstatic and maddening how much he hurt and needed to come, just the amazing pressure and building pleasure of being physically stopped made him want to weep. 

“Oh, Ichi, please…need to…come with me…” Tony gasped, one hand over his head now, gripping the sheets and twisting them.  He wasn’t sure how much more he could take.  It felt like every nerve in his body was on fire at the same time.  His other hand held onto Ichigo’s bicep, fingers digging deep into his pallid flesh. 

“You are my…soul…Tony,” Ichigo said, letting go of the base of Tony’s hardness and moving and picking him up so they were sitting now.  “I love…love you…” he gasped.

Tony couldn’t stop it as the wave of pleasure built from his toes and spread up into his belly and arched backward in Ichigo’s grip, his body releasing everything all at one time.  Ichigo gripped him hard, holding him in place as he thrust several times up into his quivering and clenching body until his own pleasure smashed into him like a sudden cero blast.  He managed to avoid gripping Tony too tightly as he felt his body empty into him.  Tony had never felt such pleasure at having someone fill him like this.  The sensation had always been associated with shame, with being without a choice, but this…this was different, this was like a spiritual experience on several levels.

Ichigo managed to stay upright as Tony flopped bonelessly into his arms, both panting and sweat soaked from the exertion.  Neither spoke for a long time, just holding each other, intertwined with legs, arms, the smell of sex and sweat permeating the room around them.  Ichigo grabbed the back of Tony’s head and ran his fingers through the dark, damp hair.  Tony reached up and threaded his own hands through the much longer orange locks that fell over Ichigo’s shoulders now.

“I won’t lose you again,” Tony said softly.

“Never again,” Ichigo said in response.  “Never.”


	9. Epilogue: The Protector's Choice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the end, for now anyway. :) I may continue this at some point, but for now, I like where it has ended. It has a feeling of completion, and though I know that not all things are resolved, it leaves room for a possible continuation or sequel. Thanks for reading what was perhaps one of the most unusual and interesting pieces I've ever written.

Protector’s Choice

“Have you heard from Tony?” Natasha asked as she wandered through the area where Steve was looking over some readouts.

Steve frowned looking up and shook his head.  “Actually, no.”

Natasha frowned.  “Isn’t that a bit odd, I mean, he should have at least checked in recently, right?” she asked.

They’d requested that Tony check in with them at least once a week after the Ultron incident.  Usually, he didn’t do it every week, but he did check in on them now and then, claiming he didn’t want them showing up at his tower unexpectedly.  Since they’d moved Avengers operations out of the tower it hadn’t really come up that often, but they worried about Tony.  He frowned and looked over at Vision where he stood talking to Wanda.  The last couple months he’d noted that they had become rather…close.  He sighed.  He didn’t really like the idea of just showing up to see Tony out of the blue, but he worried incessantly about him after what had happened recently.

“Alright, I’ll head out in the quinjet and make sure he’s okay,” he said, nodding to her as he excused himself.

Before long he found himself standing outside the house in California he’d taken to staying at lately.  It was secluded and away from everything and it didn’t surprise Steve that he’d stay there.  He pressed the bell and knocked on the heavy, wooden door.  There was an extremely long pause, and Steve was about to leave when he heard a crash inside the house followed by a really loud thump.  Steve went into soldier mode easily and used his shoulder to burst through the doorway, heading toward the kitchen where he’d heard the noise.

“Let me go, dammit, stop that…” he heard Tony’s voice and frowned.  He had someone at his house?  That was unusual.  “Goddammit, I said to stop that, you brat!” he said and he heard something else bounce followed by a sound that he recognized.  No, it couldn’t be.  Surely, Tony would have told them if he’d found him.  Surely…

He stepped around the corner and he stopped and stared.  “Tony?” he said out loud.

Tony’s head jerked around and he stared open mouthed at Steve from a decidedly awkward looking position sitting on the kitchen island, feet dangling a good thee feet off the ground, with Ichigo standing between his legs holding him as it appeared Tony was trying to escape his grip.  Both of them looked disheveled, and a platter had shattered on the floor into a million pieces that Ichigo was standing in the middle of.

“Steve…um…hi…”Tony stammered, trying to pull away and get off the counter.

“Anthony, stay put, you’re going to cut your feet up!” Ichigo snapped, his attention snapping back to the squirming Tony, and now Steve could see easily what was going on.

Tony was barefoot, and there were a few cuts on his feet, so it appeared he’d knocked off the platter or dropped it.  Ichigo had put him up on the counter to keep him out of the glass.  Tony, however, was being Tony and being annoyed at being manhandled even if it was to keep him from getting cut.  He glared daggers at Ichigo and crossed his arms over his chest in a huff.

Ichigo turned to look at Steve and smiled.  “Hey Steve, how’s it been?  Long time no see.”

There wasn’t any venom to Ichigo’s voice at all, but Steve felt the overwhelming crash of guilt slam into him.  “Ichigo, what…how…we tried to find you…where were you?” he asked, quite frankly shocked into silence.

Tony pulled his feet up to sit criss crossed and sighed exasperatedly as Ichigo picked up the broom and a dustpan and started sweeping up the glass.  As he did so, he looked at Steve. 

“Well, Hydra wanted the regeneration,” he said as he dumped the glass in the trashcan.  “So I spent most of my time with them being cut open and having parts cut off and removed so they could figure out how I regenerated so rapidly,” he added, putting the broom back into the closet then turned and grabbing Tony under the arms and setting him down on his feet again.  “Then I don’t know how, I got out, wandered around France, got picked up and doped up by well-meaning humans who thought I was catatonic, then Tony found me and brought me back.  We’ve been hiding out here for the last couple weeks, just in case anyone’s looking for me.”

Steve stared for a long moment at him.  He looked exactly the same, no sign of any of the experiments they had done on him, of course.  His body regenerated any damage.  Tony had gone back into the kitchen to get coffee and brought a cup out for himself and handed Steve a cup.  He didn’t say anything at all to Steve though, simply ducked into the dining room and sat down with his coffee and waited for the two others to come sit. 

“I…I’m glad you’re back, in one piece,” Steve said, sitting down across from Tony, and still finding that he wasn’t talking to him directly, instead sipping his coffee.

Ichigo at down between him and Tony on the other side and nodded.  “Well, one piece is relative,” he said with a sigh.  “If it weren’t for Tony, I wouldn’t have gotten back to reality.  It was…difficult.”

Steve felt awkward as though he were interfering in their lives.  “Um, well, I just…I hadn’t heard from Tony and we’ve been checking in on each other since the Ultron incident…” he said, sipping his own coffee.

“Got a bit busy, rescuing Ichigo from France, sorry I didn’t call,” Tony said, not really looking at Steve directly.  “But as you can see, we’re doing okay now.”

Steve nodded.  “Um, is there anything you need?  I mean, if there’s anything you can tell us about the group that held you, I can try and find them.”

Ichigo shook his head.  “No, we’re fine.  Tony and I are just going to lay low for a bit, take some time off, you know.”

Steve glanced at Tony who still looked bothered by something, and Steve knew it was probably still the fact that they hadn’t found Ichigo sooner.  Especially now knowing that Hydra had put him through a quite literal hell.  He cleared his throat.  “Um, okay, well, I’ll head back and let the team know that you’re okay, they were getting a bit worried.  Sorry about the door, I just heard the  plate shatter and was afraid something was wrong.”

Tony nodded.  “Don’t worry about it, Steve.  I’ll contact you if we need anything.”

Steve got up, pausing to nod at both Ichigo and then left quietly.

Ichigo turned and smirked at Tony.  “Well, I want to resume what we were starting in the kitchen.”

Tony looked over his cup.  “What?”

Before he could think about it, Ichigo had flashed and snatched him up, sitting him back on the confounded counter again, this time stripping his shirt off before he grabbed Tony’s ass and pulled him to the edge to wrap both Tony’s legs around him.  Tony groaned as his crotch ground into Ichigo’s body. 

“What?” Ichigo said, beginning to bite at Tony’s neck.  “I believe I said that you were adorable and that I was going to bend you over this countertop and fuck you until you were screaming for mercy.”

“Ah, dammit, Ichigo,” Tony muttered, feeling all resistance melting away.  “And…I said…to stop that…and you knocked off the platter…”

“Hm, Ichigo said easily picking Tony up and flipping him over on his stomach with his legs dangling off the counter. 

Tony gasped and gripped the opposite edge with both hands, afraid that he was going to fall, quite irrationally, because Ichigo was holding him up.  He squirmed as Ichigo used his free hand to slide the sweats he was wearing off him and then felt him lean over and lick a long stripe down his spine to the swell of his buttocks.  Tony wasn’t sure what he was going to do but he was hard at the moment.  However, he was still shocked into gasping when Ichigo moved his hands to hold his hips to keep him in place as slid his tongue down and down further until he pressed it into his entrance. 

“Ah, what…oh fuck,” Tony moaned as Ichigo used his tongue in ways Tony never realized it could be used there.  “I’m going…going…ah, shit,” he muttered as he felt himself tip over the edge just from Ichigo’s tongue.  He felt Ichigo laugh softly against his skin as he took a moment and sucked a deep biting mark on his ass.

“Ow, ow!” Tony said, squirming again as he felt his teeth against his skin.

“Hush, be still,” Ichigo said, standing now and staring at the slightly red mark on Tony’s ass.  He tilted his head to the side and smoothed one palm over the mark then pulled back and slapped him.

“Ah!” Tony gasped, turning back and glaring at him.  “What the hell?”

Ichigo smirked, making eye contact with him as he slapped him again.  Every bit of blood seemed to be flushing into Tony’s face and his cock at the same time.  Ichigo blinked, slapping his ass hard a few more times until it was turning bright red and Tony was whimpering and moaning.  Ichigo grinned as he kneeled down and began licking the heated flesh and began to tongue his entrance again.  Tony had never had someone do that but he…liked it.  Ichigo stood up and reached over Tony and grabbed one of the wooden spoons with a thick rubber grip from the tool crock and snapped it on the counter by Tony’s hands.

“You’re naughty, aren’t you Tony?” Ichigo muttered, steadying Tony with one hand while he used the other to rub circles on Tony’s already reddened ass.

“No, no,” Tony muttered but the anticipation was going to kill him.

“Hm, you were flirting with Rogers-taichou,” he said, pulling back and popping him lightly with the spoon.

Tony shook his head, jumping with the spoon hit him.  “Nuh-uh…I wasn’t…I…”

“I won’t spank you if you don’t give me a reason, naughty Tony,” Ichigo said, gently swirling circles with the spoon on his ass.  “I mean, why would I spank a good boy?  Are you a bad boy or a good boy Tony?  Seems to me you’re pretty naughty, coming with my tongue up your ass.  That’s pretty dirty, isn’t it?  Dirty, naughty Tony.”

Tony moaned without a second thought and knew that his ass was going to regret this choice.  “I’m so dirty, so naughty,” he said, letting out a low whine as he felt Ichigo probing his entrance with the thick rubber handle of the spoon. 

“You are?” Ichigo teased, pressing the rubber handle gently into his opening.  “Dirty thing, you like things in you don’t you?  My tongue, my cock, my fingers, and now look at you, getting excited because I’m fucking you with a spoon…what else do you want inside you Tony?” he asked, pushing the handle inside him slowly and pulling it back until he heard the whimper he was looking for.

“Ah, ah, anything, anything you want,” he whined, gripping the counter hard enough to whiten his knuckles.  Ichigo was going to be the death of him at this rate. 

Without warning he felt the world tip and swirl and he was slung over Ichigo’s shoulder easily.  One head spinning minute later he was on his back in the bed, looking up at the devilish look that had crossed Ichigo’s face as he leaned down and began sucking on his throat and started fingering him hard until Tony found himself teetering on the edge of coming again.

“No, bad boy,” Ichigo breathed on Tony’s throat, and gripped his cock at the base to stave off his orgasm.  “You can’t come until I say so, understand, little slut?” he muttered.

Strangely enough, the experiment was going well in Ichigo’s mind.  Every time he degraded or humiliated him, Tony’s cock got harder.  Seemed he liked being treated like this, he thought.  He’d thought so, after he’d accidently made a comment about him being a little bit of a slut for him, and Tony had flushed immediately and looked away.  So, he’d decided to test it.  And the more he did, the more debauched Tony got.  He felt the steadily leaking precum dripping over his hand where he held off his orgasm.  He smiled, reaching over to the drawer and pulling out a little thing he’d picked up a few days ago.

Tony arched a bit was Ichigo slid the tight cockring down over his straining prick.  Ichigo grinned and saw Tony look down and pant.  It was tight and it hurt but it was like nothing else as he felt Ichigo’s fingers go back to work on him, then he felt the harder spoon handle. 

“I’m going to fill your slutty little ass with so many things, Tony.  I’m going to fuck you with things you can’t imagine, do you understand?  I’m going to make you squirm and beg me to let you cum, and I’m going use so many things on you to make you cry and whimper and make all those lovely little noises,” he whispered against his neck.  “I’m going to spank your slutty ass until it is as red as the tip of your dripping cock, then I’m going to finger and tongue your ass until you can’t stand it anymore.  Then I’ll make sure you can’t cum until I’m done with you, and fucked myself into exhaustion and my cum is dripping down your legs like you’ve pissed yourself,” he said, smirking and smiling as the more he spoke, the more worked up Tony got.

Tony had no idea why something so terrible was affecting him like this.  Who in their right mind gets turned on by someone saying such…sexy things…  He gave up on it.  It turned him on more than anything he’d ever known and he whimpered as he strained against the ring and Ichigo fucked him thoroughly with the spoon he had.

“Please, fuck…do it…” he muttered as Ichigo smiled against Tony’s heated skin.  “Do it…beat me, fuck me, shame me…do it…do it…” he groaned, arching his back as Ichigo yanked out the spoon and slid up between his legs and slammed into him, filling him and fucking him harder than he had before. 

Ichigo felt himself slide over the edge and came hard into him.  He paused, leaning over him, feeling Tony’s cock throbbing against his stomach, still leaking a steady stream of fluid.  It didn’t take but a moment for him to harden inside him again and he flipped him to his stomach.  He pulled Tony’s hips up and fucking him harder from behind.  He felt Tony’s insides quivering and he reached around and slid the cockring off Tony and almost immediately, Tony let out a long, low moan.  Ichigo pumped hard into him as he felt Tony’s body clench impossibly hard down on him, bringing him across in what was perhaps, the most powerful orgasm he’d ever experienced.

Both Tony and Ichigo collapsed together in a heap as soon as the pleasure crested.  Ichigo pulled Tony close to him, panting as he pulled the covers over them.

“Tony, baby, I love you so much, you’re amazing, so amazing,” Ichigo said, rubbing his hands over Tony’s damp head.

Tony was exhausted and nodded, nuzzling into Ichigo’s arms.  “Um, love you too, Ichigo, so much,” he muttered, sliding into a deep sleep beside him.

-oooooo-OOOOOOO-oooooo-

Ichigo was sitting alone when he came face to face with his choice.  Tony was still sleeping, spread out on the bed, sheets entangled in his legs.  Ichigo yawned and stood up and felt something he hadn’t felt since he showed up in this world.  Reaitsu.

He turned and saw a black rip opening in the sky near him.  Nothing emerged, he was sure that nothing could come through a portal like that without turning into what he was, but he heard a voice calling his name.  He moved toward it and placed his hand against the blackness that shimmered there. 

“Ichigo!” came his father’s voice.  “Are you there?”

“I am, Pop,” he said, softly, smiling to hear from his old man again.

There was a long pause.  “We’ve been trying to find you for a long time, son, since you disappeared.  Mayuri and Urahara have no idea how something like this could have happened.  They’ve never seen anything like it. We’re trying to figure out how to bring you back.”

“I don’t think you can, Pop.  My body altered to fit this world.  Going back might destroy it,” he said thoughtfully, remembering the work that Bruce had done on it.

“We know, but Mayuri has a theory, but it will be risky, so…son…don’t do it.  The chances it will work are not the risk that you will be obliterated in the process of coming back,” Isshin said, obviously being listened to and trying not to let whoever else was there hear him.

“Are you and the girls doing well?” he asked, thinking.

“Yeah, my power has returned, and Karin is training with Urahara.  We’re fine, my son,” he said.

“So, this theory, it might destroy me, huh? I could stay here, Pop.  Its fine.”

Another long pause.  “Son, are you sure?” Isshin said and Ichigo could hear the pain in his voice.

“Tell Mayuri and Urahara to figure out a way for me to communicate with you easily, or send messages across, I don’t know, but pop, I’m okay here.  I…I followed the red string of fate and I found someone that needs me a lot more than I’m needed there,” he said, swallowing thickly.

“Son, you’ll never change, no matter what universe you’re in.  Always protecting those that need it and putting yourself in danger.  But you found someone?” Isshin’s voice was wavering a bit as the link between the worlds began to strain.

“His name is Tony, Pop, and he’s this hero in this universe, he’s this genius that built a mechanical suit, but he’s vulnerable in other ways, and he’s given me purpose and more,” Ichigo said, hoping his Pop wasn’t too surprised by his revelation he was with another man.

“Leave it to my son to go across worlds and still protect someone that needs it…” his father said, the rip in sky wavering as the connection became less stable.

“I love you, pop, tell Karin and Yuzu that I love them.  And tell them all…I’m happy.”

“I love you too, son.  I’ll…miss….you,” came the reply as the rift closed in on itself.

He jumped as he felt Tony grab his hand.  He turned to see that he’d come out, wrapped up in one of the bedsheets, hair mussed and barefoot, onto the beach to find out where Ichigo had gone.  Tony had felt his heart nearly freeze when he saw that Ichigo was talking to someone from his world.  He was sure he’d go back.  Why would he stay here just because of him?

“I thought…I thought you’d try to go home,” he said, softly.  “After everything that happened here…and…” Tony said, not looking at him.

Ichigo smiled and turned, cupping Tony’s face with both hands and kissed him lightly.  “No, Tony, I’m already home.”

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [When Two Worlds Collide](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11105619) by [justaddgigi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/justaddgigi/pseuds/justaddgigi)




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